Prolonged reduction of hepatocyte proliferative ability in rats after a single treatment with carbon tetrachloride

Female Wistar rats were pretreated with I ml of carbon tetrachloride/kg of body weight or with olive oil. All the rats were given this dose of CCl4 20 or 40 days later. Liver regeneration as evaluated by 3H-thymidine incorporation into liver DNA and by the number of mitotic hepatocytes was markedly impaired in CCl4-pretreated rats when compared with olive oil-pretreated controls. DNA labelling reached only 83 and 59% and mitotic index 35 and 58% of control values, respectively, at 20-day and 40-day time intervals. The variables characteristic of liver damage did not parallel the changes in cell division. About 20% of hepatocytes were necrotic both in the CCl4-pretreated and in the control rats. The activity of serum alanine aminotransferase was higher in the CCl4-pretreated rats. Only serum aspartate aminotransferase activities were somewhat lower when compared to controls. Similarly, serum aminotransferases were much less affected by the pretreatment than the markers of regeneration when two low doses of CCl4 (0.125 ml/kg) were given to rats 20 days apart. The activities of microsomal enzymes aniline hydroxylase and pethidine demethylase were equal in control and in experimental rats 20 days after CCl4 pretreatment which indicated that the effects of CCl4 were not mediated by an overall decrease in cytochrome P-450 enzymes. In summary, a single pretreatment of rats with CCl4 induced changes in liver that lasted for 40 days and impaired liver regeneration when another dose of CCl4 was applied.