Effect of carbon tetrachloride on experimental Tyzzer's disease of mice

Experimental Tyzzer's disease in weanling mice was enhanced by CCl4 treatment made 1 hr after intravenous infection at doses more than 0.5 ml/kg body weight. Such effect of CCl4 was demonstrated also when the drug was given 4 days before but not when given 2 days after infection. Later than 4 days of infection significant difference was seen between CCl4-treated and non-treated groups in body weight loss, production of hepatic lesions and bacterial growth in the liver. In mice infected after CCl4 administration, necrotic foci and intracellular organisms appeared mostly at the intermediate rather than the central zone of hepatic acini, while CCl4 is known to damage selectively the latter. The results suggested that enhanced bacterial growth might depend upon activated and proliferating hepatocytes at the intermediate acinar zone during a restoration process occurring after CCl4 damage at the centrilobular zone.