Carbon tetrachloride-induced liver injury in the rabbit

CCl4 administration to rabbits leads to early destruction of liver microsomal cytochrome P-450, to depression of glucose 6 phosphatase, to ultrastructurally revealable alterations and to an intense necrosis and fat accumulation in liver. Despite the known resistance of rabbit liver microsomes to lipid peroxidation, CCl4 administration to rabbits promoted lipid peroxidation of their liver microsomal lipids as revealable by the diene hyperconjugation technique, at periods of time from 1 to 12 h. Nevertheless, the intensity of this process is not equivalent to that occurring in rat liver microsomes, since the arachidonic acid content of rabbit liver microsomal lipids does not decrease at either 6 or 24 h after CCl4 administration. Rabbit liver is able to activate CCl4 to reactive metabolites that bind covalently to lipids. Relevance of covalent binding of CCl4 reactive metabolites and CCl4-promoted lipid peroxidation to CCl4-induced rabbit liver injury is analysed.