[Hepatic lipids of intact or thyroidectomized rats after administration of tetracycline or ethanol]

The purpose of this work was to study the quantitative modifications of the hepatic lipids in adult thyroidectomized rats after administration of tetracycline or ethanol (acute dose or prolonged ingestion). 1. - Thyroidectomy did not inhibit the accumulation of fat in the liver of fed euthyroid or hypothyroid rats after intraperitoneal infusion of tetracycline (320 mg/body weight in 2 injections at an interval of 16 h, the diet containing 6% of lipids). 2. - Sixteen hours after the oral administration of a single large dose of ethanol (5 g/kg body weight), there were only found some small modifications of the lipid composition of the liver in fasting euthyroid or thyroidectomized rats, receiving a diet with 6% of lipids before the experiment; on the contrary, when the diet contained 19% of lipids, a fatty liver occurred in the intact rat, but not in the thyroidectomized rat. 3. - The prolonged ethanol intake (in a 20% solution in water) for 5 months with a diet containing 19% of lipids did not induce a fatty liver in intact rats but produced a decrease of hepatic non-phosphorus lipid and an increase of the cholesterol amounts. After the administration of L-thyroxin (10 mug/100 g body weight per day) to these alcoholic thyroidectomized rats during 2 weeks, it was found an increase of the hepatic non phosphorus lipids till an higher amount than in the euthyroid rats. 4. - The hepatic phospholipid amounts were relatively constant in the different experiments. These results accounting for this differential effects were discussed.