Hernan Speisky, Nick Shackel, George Varghese, Denis Wade, Yedy Israel – 1 May 1990 – The role of hepatic γ‐glutamyltransferase in the breakdown of circulating glutathione was studied in the perfused guinea pig liver. Hepatic γ‐glutamyltransferase activity in the guinea pig is sevenfold higher than in the rat and is comparable to its activity in man. Guinea pig livers were found to remove, in a single pass, 50% to 90% of glutathione ( 10 to 50 μmol/L) added to the portal perfusate.

Maski Nakayama, Yasuyki Okamoto, Tomofumi Morita, Makoto Matsumoto, Hiroshi Fukui, Hiroshi Nakano, Tadasu Tsujii – 1 May 1990 – Hypercitrullinemia (adult type), believed to be one of the hereditary urea cycle disorders, is known to be complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma at a high incidence (approximately 14%). Weinvestigated the relationship between this hypercitrullinemia and he‐patocarcinogenesis. After the addition of citrulline, incorporation of tritiated thymidine into primary cultured hepatocytes of adult rat increased in a dose‐dependent fashion in the range of 0.1 to 5 mmol/L.

Thierry Poynard – 1 May 1990 – The serum apolipoprotein A (Apo A) and α‐fetoprotein (AFP) were evaluated in histologically verified 30* cases of alcoholic cirrhosis and 18 cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The latter were also divided into subgroups depending on the presence or absence of associated cirrhosis. Serum Apo A levels were found to be significantly decreased in cirrhotics (p < 0.001) compared to controls and non‐cirrhotic HCC patients.

Matthias Wettstein, Wolfgang Gerok, Dieter Häussinger – 1 May 1990 – Uptake, metabolism and biliary elimination of infused cysteinyl leukotrienes were investigated in single‐pass perfused rat liver. Hypoxia did not impair uptake of infused [3H] leukotriene C4, but inhibited biliary excretion of radioactivity by about 50% compared with normoxic control experiments.

1 May 1990

K. ‐J. Paquet, J. Tères – 1 May 1990

Karl‐J. Paquet, Miguel Mercado‐Diaz, Johann‐F. Kalk – 1 May 1990 – The files of patients who underwent emergency endoscopy in a 2‐yr period (January 1985 to January 1987) in the Heinz‐Kalk Hospital were analyzed to establish the frequency, significance and therapy of the Mallory‐Weiss syndrome associated with portal hypertension, an association observed in 55 of 339 patients (16.2%). Portal hypertension was caused by cirrhosis in 53 patients and by a prehepatic block in two patients.

Jacqueline Loeper, Veronique Descatoire, Michelle Maurice, Philippe Beaune, Gerard Feldmann, Dominique Larrey, Dominique Pessayre – 1 May 1990 – Antibodies against cytochrome P‐450 are found in some children with autoimmune hepatitis (antiliver/kidney microsome) and in patients with ticrynafen hepatitis (antiliver/kidney microsome2). For an immune reaction against cytochrome P‐450 to possibly destroy the hepatocytes, one must assume that cytochrome P‐450 is present on the plasma membrane surface of hepatocytes.

Craig A. Robertson, Ross L. Coppel, Thomas Prindiville, David Fregeau, Marshall Kaplan, E. Rolland Dickson, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 May 1990 – In normal individuals there is an adaptive immune response to a foreign antigen in which antibodies of increasing affinity are produced with time. This is not always true of an autoimmune response. However, because only a limited number of autoantigens have been cloned or purified, this issue has not been studied well.

Edward Cheuck‐Seen Lai, Irene Oi‐Lin Ng, Mathew Ma‐Tai Ng, Anna Shuk‐Fong Lok, Po‐Chor Tam, Sheung‐Tat Fan, Tat‐Kuen Cho, John Wong – 1 May 1990 – Recurrent or metastatic disease is frequently en‐countered among patients who have had resection of their primary hepatocellular carcinoma. A retro‐spective study on 117 patients (104 men, 13 women; mean age ± standard deviation: 53.8 ± 12.4 yr) who had hepatectomy for large hepatocellular carcinoma (diameter ≧ 5 cm) was conducted to identify an at‐risk population for tumor recurrence.