Estrogen Pharmacology. I. The Influence of Estradiol and Estriol on Hepatic Disposal of Sulfobromophthalein (BSP) in Man*

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Abstract
The influence of natural estrogens on hepatic function was studied in 31 patients by conventional tests, BSP infusions and percutaneous biopsy. Estradiol and estriol rapidly and almost invariably impaired hepatic excretory capacity for the dye sulfobromo-phthalein (BSP) in man; this impairment was accompanied by elevations in alkaline phosphatase in some patients, but other hepatic function tests as well as liver biopsy specimens examined by light microscopy remained normal despite intensive estrogen treatment. Estradiol markedly depressed hepatic secretory transport (Tm) for BSP; the hepatic relative storage space (S) for dye tended to increase although the effect was not consistent. Chromatographic analyses of plasma BSP components showed increased levels of conjugated BSP in estrogen as compared with control periods. The data are consistent with impaired transfer of dye compounds from hepatocyte to canalicular spaces during estrogen treatment. This biological action of natural estrogens probably accounts in part for the maternal-fetal impairments in BSP disposal that characterize pregnancy and the neonatal period.

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