The effects of environmental detrimental agents on the function of the hepatocytes

Introduction: Previous studies indicate that monolayer hepatocyte cultures are suitable models for the study of the development of different environmental effects that cause liver disorder. A possible environmental trauma can be the extremely low dose of chlorobenzenes (ClB), which can cause the development of hepatotoxic processes.

The experimental data confirm the significant differences between the ClB treated (toxic dose) and control groups.

Aim: Authors want to investigate the effects of chlorobenzenes treatment on the hepatocellular activity of the rats.

Methods: Male Wistar rats (150g) were used in the experiment. The rats were treated by a chlorobenzene mixture (Hexachlorobenzene:Trichlorobenzene=1:1) through gastric tube. The CIB dose was 1ppm/bwkg/day. The duration of the treatments was: 0, 30, 60 days. The physiological effects of the drug were controlled by measuring the (GT, ASAT, ALAT). The liver γ hepatic enzyme activity from the serum of the rats (was removed from the treated rats and the samples were used for histological investigation and for making cell cultures. The possible increase in the cell number was tested in the hepatocyte cultures by H3-Thymidine incorporation and the mitochondrial DNA content was controlled by gel documentation system..

Results: The results show that the used ClB doses were (GT, ASAT, ALAT) subtoxic in our model, because the levels of the liver enzymes (were in the normal range. The histological analysis showed significant changes in the treated liver samples. There was no increase in the number of the investigated hepatocytes and the DNA was disintegrated comparing to the control.

Conclusions: In conclusion, the effects of the ClB in subtoxic dose can modify the liver function in the exposed biological system.

This research was supported by ETT 270/2003 and ETT 61/2003.