Isopropanol and chlordecone potentiation of carbon tetrachloride liver injury: retention of potentiating action in hepatocyte suspensions prepared from rats given isopropanol or chlordecone.

Administration of isopropanol (2.5 ml/kg, po) or chlordecone (15.2 mg/kg, po) potentiated the release of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) into serum 17- or 7-fold, respectively, in rats exposed subsequently to 30 microliter CCl4/kg, po. Hepatocytes isolated from isopropanol-treated rats, incubated with low concentrations of CCl4 (0.3 or 0.9 mM), did not have significant increase in the amount of GOT released after 30 min compared to control cells exposed to CCl4. However, at 3 hr cells from isopropanol-treated rats released 10- or 3-fold more GOT when exposed to 0.3 or 0.9 mM CCl4, respectively, than control cells exposed to CCl4. By hour 5 of incubation this differential of GOT release was not observed. The same dose and time-dependent pattern of potentiated GOT release upon exposure of CCl4 was seen in hepatocytes obtained from chlordecone-treated rats. These results indicate that the potentiation by isopropanol or chlordecone of CCl4-induced release of GOT from liver is retained through the procedures of cell isolation.