Christof Zimmermann, Peter Ferenci, Christian Pifl, Cihan Yurdaydin, Josef Ebner, Hans Lassmann, Erich Roth, Heide Hörtnagl – 1 April 1989 – An imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory amino acid‐ergic neurotransmission has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy. For further evaluation of this hypothesis, several parameters of amino acid‐ergic neurotransmission were studied in rats with acute liver failure induced by the administration of 300 mg per kg thioacetamide by gavage on two consecutive days.

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.

Dale C. Snover, Sally Weisdorf, Joseph Bloomer, Philip McGlave, Daniel Weisdorf – 1 March 1989 – Liver disease in the early period following bone marrow transplantation may be due to a number of causes, including pretransplant cytoreduction with chemotherapy and irradiation. Although the relationship of veno‐occlusive disease to these agents has been well established, another process, nodular regenerative hyperplasia, may also occur.

Sheri M. Krams, Charles D. Surh, Ross L. Coppel, Aftab Ansari, Boris Ruebner, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 March 1989 – The availability of recombinant mitochondrial autoantigens may permit the experimental study of the pathophysiology of primary biliary cirrhosis. Previously, we demonstrated that high‐titer antibodies to the 74 kD mitochondrial autoantigen dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase could be generated when BALB/c mice were immunized with purified recombinant protein.

Bruce R. Bacon, Robert S. Britton, Rosemary O'Neill – 1 March 1989 – Peroxidative decomposition of organelle membrane phospholipids with subsequent organelle dysfunction is a postulated mechanism of liver cell injury in parenchymal iron overload. We studied the effects of different α‐tocopherol concentrations on hepatic mitochondrial lipid peroxidation and oxidative metabolism in rats with chronic dietary iron overload.

Alexander L. Gerbes, Heinrich Wernze, Rainer M. Arendt, Angelika Riedel, Tilman Sauerbruch, Gustav Paumgartner – 1 March 1989 – The role of the atrial natriuretic factor and of the main counteracting sodium‐retaining principle, the renin‐aldosterone system, in acute volume regulation of cirrhosis of the liver has been investigated. Central volume stimulation was achieved in 21 patients with cirrhosis, 11 without and 10 with ascites, and 25 healthy controls by 1‐hr head‐out water immersion.

1 March 1989

S. C. Arya – 1 March 1989

Christian Bréchot – 1 March 1989

Seymour Mishkin, Shaindel Y. Mishkin, Julius Erdstein – 1 March 1989 – The liver is a steroid‐responsive organ and contains high levels of androgen receptors (AR). The present study investigated cytosolic AR concentrations in diseased human liver obtained by needle biopsy. Insufficient tissue was available for full Scatchard analysis. Previous studies have shown the binding affinity of the liver AR to be sufficiently constant to allow the use of a single saturating dose analysis, using 3H‐mibolerone as the active ligand, for the estimation of binding sites.