Metabolic response of isolated liver cells to in vivo phagocytic challenge

This study elucidates the in vivo metabolic response of different liver cells after a single phagocytic challenge. In vivo glucose uptake of different tissues and isolated liver cells was determined by a sequential double labeling version of the 2-deoxyglucose technique. After latex administration, glucose uptake more than doubled in the liver, increased by about 50% in the spleen and lung and was not changed in muscle and testis. Within 10 min after intravenous injection of latex beads, neutropenia developed, with no change in the number of lymphocytes. This was accompanied by a marked influx of polymorphonuclear leukocytes into the liver. Latex was found in 52%, 35%, and 14% of the isolated Kupffer cells, polymorphonuclear leukocytes and endothelial cells, respectively. In vivo glucose uptake increased by 111%, 142%, and 43% in these cells. Glucose uptake by the latex-free hepatocytes was also elevated, presumably by way of intercellular signals between parenchymal and non-parenchymal liver cells. Indomethacin pretreatment resulted in the delay of neutrophil immigration into tissues without any change in the glucose response of different liver cells. Thus phagocytic stimulation in vivo results in marked neutropenia, migration of neutrophils into the liver, increased glucose uptake by phagocytic cells of the liver and enhanced glucose metabolism by the non-phagocytic parenchymal cells.