William R. Brown, Thomas M. Kloppel – 1 May 1989 – Secretory immunoglobulin A is the characteristic and predominant immunoglobulin of the mucosal immune system; it participates in immunological protection at the level of mucous membrane surfaces. During the past 10 to 15 years, a great deal of experimental and clinical evidence has shown that the liver is very much involved in the sIgA system.

J. R. Thornton, M. S. Losowsky, Robert W. Schrier – 1 May 1989

Jesús Prieto, Alberto Castilla, María‐Luisa Subirá, Manuel Serrano, Susana Morte, María‐pilar Civeira – 1 May 1989 – Monocytes play an important role in the initiation and regulation of the antiviral immune response. These cells have a dense framework of intermediate filaments composed of vimentin monomers.

Gaetano Cairo, Luisa Schiaffonati, Emilia Rappocciolo, Lorenza Tacchini, Aldo Bernelli‐Zazzera – 1 May 1989 – The levels of expression of some genes of the HSP 70 family have been assessed in rat liver and in a series of transplantable hepatomas with different growth rates, subjected to heat shock in vivo. For this purpose, the mRNAs for the constitutive cognate HSC 73, the heat‐inducible HSP 70 and the glucose‐regulated GRP 78 have been analyzed by: (i) translation in reticulocyte lysates; (ii) hybrid‐selected translation, and (iii) Northern blot analysis.

T. Saurebruch – 1 May 1989 – Endoscopic retrograde laser lithotripsy of common bile duct stones is a new technique which can be carried out through the endoscope without anaesthesia using ordinary endoscopic equipment. In the method described here a flashlamp pulsed Neodymium YAG laser (wave length 1064mm) was used. Light energy was transmitted along a highly flexible quartz fibre with a diameter of 0.2mm. This new technique was used in nine patients with concrements in the common bile duct, which could not be removed with the established endoscopic techniques.

John C. Marsh – 1 May 1989 – A fatal massive hepatic necrosis with widespread thrombotic occlusion of the small hepatic veins developed in two of 68 patients treated with DTIC for advanced melanoma in a randomized study. Thirteen similar reactions, in patients treated with single‐agent DTIC, are reported in the literature. Several clinical and pathologic features distinguish this DTIC toxicity from Budd‐Chiari syndrome and veno‐occlusive disease (both well‐known types of possibly drug‐related hepatic vascular disease) and make it a distinctive syndrome.

Michiko Shindo, Tadao Okuno, Ken Arai, Masayuki Matsumoto, Makoto Takeda, Tatsuro Takino, Yoshihiro Sokawa – 1 May 1989 – We measured 2′,5′‐oligoadenylate synthetase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and serum of 14 HBsAg‐ and HBeAg‐positive patients with chronic hepatitis B with or without acute exacerbation.

Swan N. Thung, De‐Fa Wang, Thomas M. Fasy, Andrew Hood, Michael A. Gerber – 1 May 1989 – It has been postulated that polymerized human serum albumin may play a role in the infection of hepatocytes by hepatitis B virus, because both the envelope of hepatitis B virus (HBsAg) and hepatocytes exhibit binding activity for human serum albumin after cross‐linking by glutaraldehyde.

Graham F. Barnard, Sandra K. Erickson, Yasuo Nagata, Allen D. Cooper – 1 May 1989 – The suppression of cholesterol synthesis by dietary cholesterol which occurs in the livers of normal animals is absent in hepatomas. This abnormality has been reported to occur in the livers of animals fed hepatocarcinogens, even before there is any histologic evidence of malignancy (premalignant liver).

Carolin Erika Schriever, Dieter Jüngst – 1 April 1989 – Rapid aggregation of cholesterol‐phospholipid vesicles in gallbladder bile seems to be the first event in the production of cholesterol crystals, a prerequisite for cholesterol gallstone formation. We examined the amount of these vesicles in 33 human gallbladder biles in relation to biliary lipid composition and to the presence of cholesterol crystals. Biliary microscopy detected cholesterol crystals in all 19 biles from patients with cholesterol gallstones but in none of 14 biles from patients with pigment stones.