Biochemical Changes During Acute Physiological Failure in the Rat: I. The Coenzyme a Content of the Compartments of the Liver Cells of the Rat During Shock

Abstract

Shock was produced in the albino rat by means of a standardized method of blood removal. Coenzyme A (CoA) was extracted from the liver and estimated during the reversible and the irreversible phases of shock. The assay procedure was designed so that each animal served as its own "control".The CoA concentration in the liver fell rapidly during the first half hour of shock and thereafter at a progressively slower rate as the state of shock became more severe. Escape of the coenzyme from the mitochondria and the nucleus into the cytoplasm of the liver cells became evident during the reversible phase, and its breakdown in the cytoplasm began with the onset of the irreversible phase. Even at death, however, the CoA concentration of the liver was rarely lower than 35% of the original concentration. It is unlikely, therefore, that the decrease in the CoA content of the liver is a key factor in the initiation of the state of irreversibility in hemorrhagic shock.