Kiyoshi Yamazaki, Nicholas F. Larusso – 1 March 1988 – Electropermeabilisation—i.e. subjecting cells to a short series of high‐voltage pulses—has been used to make isolated rat hepatocytes transiently permeable to small molecules. The permeabilised cells can be loaded with [14C]sucrose at 0°C and resealed by a brief incubation at 37°C. The electrical treatment does not impair cellular function, since autophagic sequestration of sucrose occurs at the same rate as in untreated cells.

Flemming Burcharth – 1 March 1988 – The records of 37 patients who had undergone splenoportography, including one group of 12 who were studied before 1976 and a second group of 25 who were studied after 1977, were reviewed. The primary difference was that in the second group, the tract in the spleen was occluded with absorbable gelatin sponge (Gelfoam) plugs as the needle was withdrawn. In addition, there were minor changes in technique, such as changes in the needle puncture angle and entry site.

Alan B. Lumsden, J. Michael Henderson, Michael H. Kutner – 1 March 1988 – Endotoxin concentrations were measured in the portal, hepatic and peripheral venous blood of two groups of patients with cirrhosis using a limulus‐based chromogenic assay. The high sensitivity of chromogenic detection allowed measurement of endotoxin as low as 10 to 15 pg per ml, an order of magnitude greater than previously possible by gelation studies. Group 1 consisted of 56 patients with cirrhosis undergoing angiographic evaluation.

Jean‐Claude Sibille, Hitoshi Kondo, Philip Aisen – 1 March 1988 – Like the rat peritoneal macrophage, the isolated Kupffer cell is capable of processing and releasing iron acquired by phagocytosis of immunosensitized homologous red blood cells. When erythrophagocytosis is restrained to levels which do not affect cell viability, about one red cell per macrophage, close to 50% of iron acquired from red cells is released within 24 hr in the form of ferritin.

Maria Anna Leo, Charles S. Lieber – 1 March 1988

Kenneth J. W. Taylor – 1 March 1988 – As a new screening procedure, intraoperative ultrasonography using high‐resolution real‐time instruments was used routinely in 84 colorectal cancer operations to scan the entire liver for liver metastases. In 10 operations (11.9%), intraoperative ultrasonography identified 14 previously unrecognized metastatic tumors, all of which were less than 2 cm in size and were nonpalpable.

Uma Sundaram – 1 March 1988

John H. Helzberg – 1 March 1988

1 March 1988

Jose Chianale, Caroline Dvorak, Donna L. Farmer, Linda Michaels, Jorge J. Gumucio – 1 March 1988 – Hepatocytes of the right and left lobes of the fetal liver are surrounded by different microenvironments. The right and left lobes of the fetal liver are perfused by vascular systems carrying different concentrations of oxygen and constitute distinct functional units. The aim of this study was to assess the expression of the phenobarbital‐inducible cytochrome P‐450 b,e genes in hepatocytes of the right and left fetal liver lobes in mice.