Effects of the Kupffer cell inactivator gadolinium chloride on rat liver oxygen uptake and content of mitochondrial cytochromes

Abstract

The effect of gadolinium chloride (GdCl 3 ) on the content of rat liver mitochondrial cytochromes was investigated in relation to the basal rate of O 2 uptake and Kupffer cell functioning, assessed in liver perfusion studies. (1) A single dose of GdCl 3 (10 mg/kg) produced a significant diminution in Kupffer cell functioning, evidenced by the decreases in colloidal carbon uptake and in carbon‐induced O 2 uptake observed at 6–24 h after treatment, without changes in the sinusoidal lactate dehydrogenase efflux as index of tissue viability; at 48 h after GdCl 3 administration, carbon phagocytosis was recovered to control values, whereas carbon‐induced O 2 uptake remained lower than control values. (2) GdCl 3 also caused a 34% decrease in the basal rate of O 2 consumption of the liver at 24 h after treatment, which returned towards control values at 48 h. (3) The content of mitochondrial cytochromes c 1 and c at 24 h after GdCl 3 treatment was significantly reduced by 40 and 32%, respectively, which returned to control values at 48 h, without changes in that of cytochromes b and a+a 3 . It is concluded that GdCl 3 ‐induced decrease in liver O 2 consumption is a reversible phenomenon that seems to be due to a diminution in the content of mitochondrial cytochromes c 1 and c.