Glucose turnover in rats undergoing transient dearterialization for liver malignancy

With the development of new techniques for hepatic dearterialization, their use in the treatment of liver malignancies has increased. It is therefore important to study the metabolic consequences of hepatic dearterialization. The present investigation determined the glucose turnover during hepatic dearterialization in the rat with the use of a primed tracer [( 3-3H]glucose) infusion technique. It was found that the glucose elimination rate was diminished during dearterialization in both tumor-free and tumor-bearing rats in the fasting state. Hepatic glucose production was maintained in tumor-free rats leading to hyperglycemia, but hepatic glucose production decreased in tumor-bearing rats resulting in hypoglycemia. Pretreatment of tumor-bearing rats overnight with an intravenous glucose infusion did not counteract the reduced hepatic glucose production during dearterialization in tumor-bearing rats. The hypoglycemic tendency therefore remained. This could be caused by the exaggerated glucose consumption that is known to occur in tumor tissues. It is concluded that hepatic dearterialization reduces glucose elimination in rats, and, in tumor-bearing rats, the procedure also reduces hepatic glucose production.