Effect of phenobarbital on the distribution of drug metabolizing enzymes between periportal and perivenous rat hepatocytes prepared by digitonin-collagenase liver perfusion.

Intact periportal (pp) or perivenous (pv) hepatocytes were prepared by digitonin-collagenase liver perfusion. The degree of separation was indicated by significant differences between the pp and pv cells in their activity of the pp markers, alanine aminotransferase (pp/pv = 2.1), gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (3.4) and lactate dehydrogenase (1.3), and of the pv markers, glutamate dehydrogenase (0.73) and pyruvate kinase (0.81). This pattern was not altered by a 3-day pretreatment with phenobarbital (PB). The hepatocytes isolated from the pv area contained higher activities of microsomal NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase, 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase and benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase, and of cytosolic glutathione transferase. Cytochrome P-450 and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase were slightly higher in pv cells. Treatment with PB induced NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, glutathione transferase, cytochrome P-450 and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase but the degree of induction was found to be at least as strong in pp cells as in pv cells. The induction of 7-ethoxyresorufin O-deethylase and 7-ethoxycoumarin O-deethylase was clearly more prominent in pp cells. On the other hand, PB reduced the activities of benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase in both cell types. These results demonstrate by direct enzyme assay of separated cells the dominance of the pv-region for metabolizing drugs in the normal liver. Contrary to several other studies, however, our data indicate that induction by PB occurs panacinarily, i.e., relatively more in the pp region, thus diminishing rather than exaggerating the original pv dominance.