Effect of adrenal cortical steroids on liver regeneration

Abstract

Rats were partially hepatectomized, injected sc daily for the first 7 days with oil solutions of several mineralo-and glucocorticoids, sacrificed on the tenth post-operative day, and the extent of liver regeneration ascertained. Cortisone and prednisolone acetates at overall levels of 70 and 7.5 mg/kg, respectively, depressed regeneration, as was also noted with aqueous solutions of hydrocortisone and dexamethasone sodium phosphates at about 85 and 0.7 mgjkg, in the order stated; aldosterone (0.5 mg/kg) or fludrocortisone (15 mg/kg) were ineffective. The injection of deoxycorticosterone acetate (130 mg/kg) or the feeding of a diet with spironolactone supplemented at 0.060% accelerated liver regeneration and these, in addition to very massive levels of progesterone, counteracted the effect of cortisone; testosterone propionate negated the action of the latter in the adult female. An inhibitory response was also evident when cortisone acetate was fed at 50 ppm. The extent of regeneration was little affected in rats adrenalectomized at least 5 days prior to partial hepatectomy and, except for dexamethasone (0.7 mg/kg), the inhibitory influence of the above glucocorticoids was minimal; the stirnulatory action of spironolactone continued. In normal or adrenalectomized rats with .intact liver, the spironolactone feeding and, even more so, the sc injection of fludrocortisone (1 5 mg/kg) elicited increases in liver-body weight ratios, cortisone acetate at levels even as high as 190 mg/kg being without action.