EFFECT OF FOOD-INTAKE ON THE ACTIVITY OF LIVER-ENZYMES IN PARTIALLY HEPATECTOMIZED RATS TREATED WITH TUMOR-NECROSIS-FACTOR

After partial hepatectomy (PHx), there are significant changes in the activity of a number of enzymes in the regenerating rat liver. Adminis tration of low doses of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor-alpha (rHu-TNF) to normal rats induces similar changes in some of the enzyme s but not in others. Because certain observations suggest that TNF may play a dominant role in liver regeneration, we speculated that the di screpancies in enzyme activities may be due to the decrease in food in take caused by PHx. Accordingly, the activities of eleven liver enzyme s of 70% PHx rats additionally treated i.p. with rHu-TNF (20-50 mu g/k g/day for 3-4 days) were compared with those of (i) PHx controls fed a d lib., and (ii) PHx controls pair-fed the same amount of food. When p air-fed controls were used, the discrepancies in the activities of the enzymes that are affected by fasting tended to disappear, suggesting that the decrease in the food intake was responsible for the differenc es.