Intravenous injection of gadolinium chloride (GdCl3) at a dose of 10 mg/kg caused an increase in proliferating cell nuclear antigen labeling index and the grade of pyronin positivity (RNA level) in rat liver. In CCl4-exposed rats, pretreatment with GdCl3 also showed a preventive effect of the liver injury both biochemically and histologically. Moreover, the proliferative action preceded the attenuative effect of the liver injury. Results suggest that GdCl3 induces hepatocyte proliferation, and this action of GdCl3 may modify the development of CCl4-induced liver injury.

We screened for foodstuffs affecting interferon-beta (IFN-beta) production of human foreskin diploid fibroblasts, in the presence of poly I.poly C, cycloheximide, and actinomycin D. alpha- and beta-caseins stimulated IFN-beta production dose-dependently, but kappa-casein inhibited it. Of the two chymosin fragments of kappa-casein, glycomacropeptide was an inhibitor but p-kappa-casein was not. beta-lactoglobulin stimulated IFN-beta production weakly, but lactoferrin inhibited it strongly. It was also shown that serum contained some factors inhibiting IFN-beta induction and stimulating its production.

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