Prostaglandins and CCl4-induced liver cell mortality. The effect of the prostaglandin analogue enprostil.

Prostaglandins have been reported to reduce the carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver cell injury in rats. The object of the present experiments was to examine the effect of the prostaglandin E2 analogue enprostil on the survival of isolated liver cells exposed to CCl4. Liver parenchymal cells were isolated from rat livers by collagenase perfusion and released into a 'suspension' buffer. Aliquots of the cell suspension were incubated with 1 micrograms or 0.5 microgram CCl4, and to parallel test suspensions 20 ng enprostil was added 5-10 min before CCl4. Incubation was performed on ice, at room temperature, and at 37 degrees C. The average percentage of dead cells after CCl4 treatment was significantly reduced by pretreatment with enprostil at room temperature (1 microgram CCl4: 69 +/- 21% and 44 +/- 13%, respectively) and after 10 min of incubation at 37 degrees C (1 microgram Cl4: 56 +/- 25% and 37 +/- 27%; 0.5 microgram CCl4: 51 +/- 33% and 29 +/- 18%, respectively). When the liver cell mortality approximated 100% after long-term incubation at 37 degrees C, no protective effect of enprostil was observed.