Disturbances in oxidative phosphorylation in the liver of rats with heliotrine-induced hepatitis and restoration by phosphatidylcholine and ATP.

Acute hepatitis induced by heliotrine is accompanied by uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation in liver mitochondria. The rate of oxygen uptake during succinate oxidation increased in all metabolic states, while the respiratory control index decreased by 45% because of the greater increase in the respiration rate in state 4 by comparison with that in state 3. Heliotrine poisoning also halved the rate of oxygen uptake in rat liver homogenates in the presence of ascorbate and tetramethylene-p-phenylenediamine. This is indicative of a lowering of cytochrome oxidase activity and of energy metabolism disturbances in rat liver. Preparations of cotton phosphatidylcholine (PC), both purified and as ATP-containing complexes (PC+ATP), as well as ATP alone, reduced the metabolic disorders in liver mitochondria of rats with acute heliotrine-induced hepatitis. The therapeutic effect of these preparations consisted in the restoration of oxidative phosphorylation coupling and of the cytochrome oxidase activity. The effect of PC+ATP was much greater than either PC or ATP alone. In contrast, the commercial preparation, Essential, had no beneficial effect.