Effect of Cortisone Administration on Intracellular Composition of Rat Liver.

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Abstract
Adult rats were injd. intramusc. with cortisone acetate, 25 mg./day for 5 days. After a 24-hour fast, livers were removed and the cells fractionated, in 85% NaCl soln., into 5 fractions: nuclear, mito-chondrial, microsomal, ultracentrifugable and nonsedimentable. These fractions were analyzed for pentose nucleic acid (PNA). Following cortisone admn., the mitochondrial and microsomal pellets were reduced in quantity and lacked PNA in contrast to normal rats. In the treated animals the ultracentrifugable fraction increased 5-fold over that of the controls. Cortisone eliminated the characteristic liver basophilia, as demonstrated by toluidine blue and gallocyanin chromalum, but 8 days after the last injection, composition of the liver had returned to normal. Following cortisone admn., it was no longer possible to isolate significant amts. of PNA from either mitochondria or microsomes of rat liver cells.