An analysis of the composition of the inflammatory infiltrate in autoimmune and hepatitis B virus-induced chronic liver disease.

The composition of the mononuclear cell infiltrate in the liver was studied in patients with autoimmune and hepatitis B virus (HBV)-induced liver disease. The ratio of inducer to cytotoxic/suppressor cells was greater in patients with lupoid chronic active liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis, and HBeAb positive HBV-induced chronic active liver disease than in patients with HBeAg positive HBV-induced chronic hepatitis. In patients with chronic HBV-induced (HBeAb positive) liver disease, this ratio was greater in the periportal/portal area than in the lobule.

Hepatitis B surface antigen and alpha-fetoprotein secreting human primary liver cell cancer in athymic mice.

A human primary liver cancer cell line which retains the property of synthesizing hepatitis B surface antigen has been successfully transplanted into nude (athymic) mice. The morphology of the heterotransplanted tumor is similar to that of a well-differentiated human primary liver cell cancer. It produces hepatitis B surface antigen, but there is no evidence of hepatitis B virion production: Hepatitis B core antigen is not detected in the PLC tissue, and serum is negative for hepatitis B e antigen.

Monomeric (7S) IgM in chronic liver disease.

Monomeric (7S) IgM was detected by polyacrylamide/agarose gell immunodiffusion and Sephadex G200 gel filtration in 33% of sera from patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and 5% of patients with HBsAg-negative chronic active liver disease (CALD). It was not found in the sera of patients with extrahepatic cholestasis, alcoholic liver disease (ALD), HBsAg-positive CALD and normal control subjects. In the PBC group the presence of 7S IgM was associated with significantly higher IgM concentrations and Clq binding activity (P less than 0.

[Treatment of the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion with demethylchlortetracycline (author's transl)].

A patient with a syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion secondary to an undifferentiated bronchogenic carcinoma with distant metastases was treated with demethylchlortetracycline. Up until recently, treatment of this syndrome was based on water restriction and when the plasma sodium concentration became extremely low, hypertonic saline solution administration. Recently it has been demonstrated that the antibiotic demethylchlortetracycline inhibits the action of the antidiuretic hormone on the renal tubules.

Incidence and clinical significance of sinusoidal dilatation in liver biopsies.

In a review of 906 consecutive liver biopsies, sinusoidal dilatation, unrelated to passive congestion of the liver, sinusoidal infiltration, or cirrhosis, was found in 26 cases (2.9%). In 21 of them the final diagnosis was a neoplastic or granulomatous disease (tuberculosis, brucellosis, Crohn's disease), but in only half of them was there evidence of neoplastic or granulomatous infiltration of the liver.