SEX-DIFFERENCES IN INITIAL CLEARANCE OF PALMITATE BY HUMAN HEPATOCYTES

To determine if the sex differences in clearance of long chain fatty a cids by the liver observed in the rat are relevant to humans, the auth ors isolated hepatocytes from human adult males and females (five per group) and measured the initial (unidirectional) clearance of [H-3]-pa lmitate from buffer containing albumin. The clearance was significantl y higher (about twofold) in hepatocytes from females because of a high er permeability of the plasma membrane to the fatty acid. The livers h ad been perfused with University of Wisconsin (UW) solution and stored for 12-16 h before isolation of the cells. The magnitudes of the clea rances in humans were similar to those in the rat when the livers were stored similarly, but lower than in cells isolated from fresh rat liv er. When hepatocytes isolated from fresh rat liver were stored in UW s olution, clearance of [H-3]-palmitate was unaffected. Thus, hepatocyte s prepared from intact liver stored for several hours in UW solution d o not have as good preservation of function as hepatocytes isolated fr om fresh liver and then stored in UW solution.