Peter F. Malet, Catherine L. Locke, Bruce W. Trotman, Roger D. Soloway – 1 July 1986 – The purpose of this study was to examine the role of calcium ions in gallbladder glycoprotein secretion in cultured guinea pig gallbladder explants. The calcium ionophore A23187 showed a threshold of 2 μg per ml medium for stimulation of secretion of [3H]glucosamine‐labeled glycoproteins over a 30 min incubation period. The ionophore at 3 and 5 μg per ml medium resulted in a 3‐ to 4‐fold increase in secretion of [3H]glucosamine‐labeled glycoproteins.

Bertrand Nalpas, Anne Vassault, Serge Charpin, Bernard Lacour, Pierre Berthelot – 1 July 1986 – Serum mitochondrial aspartate aminotransferase activity was measured using an immunochemical method in 251 subjects, of whom 140 were chronic alcoholics. The alcoholic patients included 37 with normal liver routine tests (Group I), 61 with noncirrhotic alcoholic liver disease (Group II) and 42 with cirrhosis (Group III), of whom 21 had been abstainers for at least 2 months.

Sohrab Mobarhan, Thomas J. Layden, Howard Friedman, Annette Kunigk, Philip Donahue – 1 July 1986 – This study was designed to determine whether chronic moderate ethanol ingestion alters the levels of vitamin A of liver and esophageal epithelium and if this is dependent on zinc nutriture. Forty male Sprague‐Dawley 4‐week‐old rats were divided into five groups: zinc‐deficient (0.9 ppm), ethanol‐fed; zinc‐deficient; zinc‐adequate (25 ppm); zinc‐adequate (25 ppm), ethanol‐fed; and zinc‐supplemented (50 ppm), ethanol‐fed.

Brian K. Singletary, David H. van Thiel, Patricia K. Eagon – 1 July 1986 – Gallbladder disease is more prevalent in women than men. Estrogen therapy has been associated with an increased incidence of gallbladder disease in both sexes. Further, increased progesterone levels have been implicated in impairment of gallbladder motility in pregnancy. Because sex hormones often exert their action through specific receptors, we investigated whether human gallbladder contains receptors for estrogen and progesterone.

Kevin D. Mullen, Scott C. Denne, Arthur J. McCullough, Samuel M. Savin, Deborah Bruno, Anthony S. Tavill, Satish C. Kalhan – 1 July 1986 – Alterations in protein and amino acid metabolism have been postulated to explain the frequent observations of muscle wasting and decreased plasma branched‐chain amino acid concentrations in cirrhosis.

R. Esteban, M. Buti, M. Vallés, H. Allende, J. Guardia, Gabriel Garcia, William S. Robinson, Peter B. Gregory, Thomas C. Merigan – 1 July 1986

1 July 1986

1 May 1986

Gotaro Yamada, Ichinosuke Hyodo, Kazuo Tobe, Motowo Mizuno, Takashi Nishihara, Toshinari Kobayashi, Hideo Nagashima – 1 May 1986 – Subpopulations of lymphocytes in portal areas, especially infiltrating bile duct epithelia were analyzed by light and electron microscopy using indirect peroxidaselabeled antibody method and monoclonal antibodies against pan‐T (Leu 1), cytotoxic/suppressor T (Leu 2a), helper/inducer T (Leu 3a) and natural killer/K (Leu 7) and suppressor T (Leu 15) cells in liver biopsy specimens from four patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Albert J. Czaja – 1 May 1986 – A randomised controlled trial was conducted in 29 HBV carriers who had been HBs and HBe antigen positive for more than six months. Fifteen patients were treated with ARA‐AMP 10 mg/kg/ day given as intramuscular injections 12 hours apart for five days followed by 5 mg/kg/day for 23 days. The 14 controls received no treatment. Serum HBV‐DNA polymerase, and HBV‐DNA decreased in all patients during therapy. Six treated patients lost serum HBV‐DNA polymerase, HBV‐DNA and HBeAg, HBsAg concentrations decreased, and five developed anti‐HBe.