Changes in hepatic blood volume on galactose and indocyanine green uptake by cat liver.

The liver has important functions as a blood volume reserve and in uptake and metabolism of many substrates. This study examines whether changes in hepatic blood volume modify the uptakes of model substrates galactose and indocyanine green (ICG) in cats anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium. A hepatic venous long-circuit technique with an extracorporeal reservoir was used to control hepatic flow and venous pressure and to allow repeated sampling of arterial, portal, and hepatic venous blood without depletion of the cat's blood volume. Hepatic blood volume was measured by plethysmography. Galactose and ICG were infused intravenously at constant rates for 200 min in each of three series of experiments. The first series were time controls. In the second series, hepatic blood volume was increased by raising hepatic venous pressure. In the third series hepatic blood volume was decreased by hepatic nerve stimulation and infusions of norepinephrine and angiotensin. Hepatic congestion resulted in small increases in blood galactose levels, suggesting mild impairment of hepatic galactose metabolism. Decreases in liver blood volume did not modify hepatic galactose metabolism. Increases in hepatic blood volume facilitated while decreases inhibited ICG uptake, but the effects were small. Sinusoidal velocity and transit time have minor effects on uptake even for protein-bound substrates. In summary, large changes in hepatic blood volume had minor effects on galactose and ICG blood concentrations, suggesting that the metabolic functions of the liver are essentially independent of the blood reservoir function.

Rapid measurement of blood ethanol concentrations using the alcohol oxidase membrane technique.

The alcohol oxidase membrane technique is available for measurement of ethanol in commercial fluids. In this paper we examined its usefulness for cat and human blood in comparison with gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). The membrane method proved to be simple, reproducible, accurate, and inexpensive. Analysis took 1-2 min per sample and required only 25 microL of whole blood for measurement of concentrations between 0.05 and 1.0 mM (0.25-5 mg/dL) and 10 microL of whole blood for measurement of concentrations between 1.0 and 40 mM (5-190 mg/dL). Background concentrations were undetectable in cats after extraneous sources of alcohols were removed. The alcohol oxidase membrane technique is less specific than GLC, but it may be useful when ethanol is administered after background samples have shown an absence of other nonspecific reactants. Its high sensitivity is useful for kinetic studies where blood ethanol concentrations are below or close to those required for maximal hepatic ethanol metabolism.

Hepatic plasma flow: accuracy of estimation from bolus injections of indocyanine green.

Experiments were performed to determine the validity of the indocyanine green (ICG) clearance technique, with and without allowances for incomplete hepatic extraction, as an estimate of hepatic plasma flow. This technique was compared with that of directly measured hepatic blood flow using a hepatic venous long-circuit preparation in the anesthetized cat. This preparation allowed direct measurement and alteration of hepatic blood flow and collection of arterial, portal, and hepatic venous blood samples without depletion of the animal's blood volume. Measurements of ICG by spectrophotometry and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) were equally accurate, but the HPLC was 100 times more sensitive and allowed smaller sample volumes. It was determined that systemic clearance of ICG after a bolus dose (1.3 mumol/kg) was much smaller than hepatic blood flow. Allowance must be made for the incomplete extraction. When the clearance was multiplied by extraction, mean estimated hepatic plasma flow exceeded the measured flow values by 20-30%, and this difference was attributed to temporary extrahepatic distribution. In all experiments estimated hepatic plasma flows were highly variable, and reasons for this are discussed. In hepatectomized cats ICG was found to be distributed into extrahepatic tissues.