A PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TRACE METALS IN RATS WITH EXPERIMENTAL LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Abstract

Changes of trace metals during the process of liver fibrosis up to the development of liver cirrhosis were determined using an ICP emission analyzer in the serum and the organs from rats with CCl₄ treatment. Zn levels in hepatic tissue showed significant decrease sucessively with high collagenase activity during the development of liver cirrhosis, together with low Zn levels and high Cu level in the serum. And then the bepatic fibrosis were completed, the isolation of Zn and Cu binding fractions in the liver cytoplasma from cirrhosic rats showed on a Sephadex G-75 Gelchromatography that the contents of ⁶⁵Zn and Zn-binding substance were decreased and that the content of Cu-binding substance were increased. Zn and Cu are co-enzymes of the enzymes functioning cytokinesis and fibrosis, and no metal in the organs of pancreas, kidney and heart were shown neither sucessive increase nor decrease, may suggest a relation to the process of experimental liver fibrosis.
The difference of the organ uptake of orally and intravenousely administered ⁶⁵Zn gave an suggestion of the possibility that Zn deficiency of cirrhosic rats would be due to decreased gastrointestinal absorption of Zn.