EFFECT OF A SMALL, CIRCUMSCRIBED HEPATIC NECROSIS ON SERUM AND HEPATIC ENZYME ACTIVITIES

A small focal necrosis of the liver was produced without affecting the general condition of dogs by injecting 20 ml. 69% sodium and methylglucamine diatrizoates into a catheter wedged in a hepatic vein. This was associated with a decreased enzyme activity of the injured tissue as compared with normal liver and correspondingly increased levels of serum glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), and sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH) activities in both hepatic venous and peripheral arterial blood. By 72 hr. after injury, when regeneration was seen histologically, the enzyme activities, markedly depressed in the injured areas, were returning to normal. The increase of serum enzyme activity appears to be quite rapid during the first few minutes after hepatic injury and there is a slow secondary rise during the first hour thereafter. By 24 hr. the serum enzyme activities returned to near normal. The enzyme activities in the peripheral arterial blood were not significantly different from those in the hepatic venous blood. Transient elevations of serum enzyme activities were also noticed in human subjects who underwent diagnostic wedge hepatic venography.