Abstract
Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) hepatotoxicity was studied in Mongolian gerbils in vivo and in vitro. After treating animals with 50μl/kg CCl4, serum transaminase levels were remarkably elevated, and mild increase of triglycerides (TG) and decrease of total cholesterol (T-Chol) were seen in the liver showing slight perilobular zonal fatty degeneration. The fatty degeneration was significantly enhanced in animals fasted for 24 hr before CCl4 treating. By phenobarbital (PB) pretreatment for 3 days, degenerated and necrotized hepatocytes were moderately increased in number without remarkable enhancement of fatty change in both fed and fasted animals. On the other hand, the primary culture of gerbil hepatocytes, which were exposed to 0.2 mM or more CCl4 for 24hr, showed intracellular accumulation of TG and T-Chol with marked leakage of cellular lactic dehydrogenases (LDH) and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminases (GOT), resulting in severe vacuolar degeneration and necrosis. Pretreatment of the cell culture with 1 mM PB for 24hr caused more distinguished degeneration after exposure to 0.2 mM CCl4, without intracellular lipid deposition nor enhanced enzyme leakage.
