PLASMA AMINO-ACID PATTERNS IN EXPERIMENTAL ACUTE HEPATIC-FAILURE - COMPARISON BETWEEN HEPATECTOMY AND LIVER DEVASCULARIZATION IN PIGS

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 90  (3) , 527-534
Abstract
To clarify the physiopathologic mechanism leading to a marked increase in aromatic amino acids (AAA) in acute hepatic failure (AHF), 2 experimental models of AHF were compared. Ten pigs were submitted to 1-stage hepatic devascularization (group A); in 8 other pigs total hepatectomy was performed (group B). The animals were maintained under constant glucose infusion. The mean survival time in group A was 23 .+-. 2 h; after hepatectomy it was 30 .+-. 4 h. Hepatic coma progressively deepened from 8 .+-. 3 h in Group A animals and was delayed until 17 .+-. 5 h in the anhepatic pigs. AAA, methionine and tryptophan immediately increased markedly in pigs with liver ischemia. In group B animals, AAA showed a slight increase only 18 h after hepatectomy, whereas there were no significant differences in methionine and tryptophan. The different amino acid patterns in the 2 groups of animals demonstrate that hepatocyte necrosis is a major source of plasma amino acids after liver devascularization. The slight increase in AAA after total hepatectomy suggests that a release mechanism from muscular mass is involved in the later stages of the experiment. The onset of coma is related to the increase in AAA rather than to alterations in blood NH3 that did not differ in either group of animals.