MECHANISM OF INTRAHEPATIC CHOLESTASIS INDUCED BY HEAT-KILLED PROPIONIBACTERIUM ACNES IN THE TUBERCULINE-SENSITIZED GUINEA PIG

Abstract

When heat-killed Propionibacterium acnes is intravenously injected into tuberculin-sensitized guinea pigs, the sensitized lyuphocytes are infiltrated in the liver tissue. By further injecting specific antigen, purified protein derivatives (PPD), the cholestatic factor is produced and intrahepatic cholestasis is immunologically induced in vivo. In order to examine the mechanism by which intrahepatic cholestasis is induced, we studied the bile excretion of ¹⁴C-sucrose and ³²P-orthophosphate, which are known to excrete into the bile through the tight junction (paracellular pathway) rather than through the liver cells. However, in the guinea pigs in which intrahepatic cholestasis was immunologically induced, there was no change in the excretion of ¹⁴C-sucrose and ³²P-orthophosphate into the bile.