An all-glass apparatus for liver perfusion of lipophilic substrates. I. Construction and physical characteristics.

An all-glass apparatus for perfusing isolated rat livers was constructed for use in studies of the metabolism by, or action on, the liver of lipophilic substrates. Other designs, which generally include plastic connections or cannulae, can have unnecessarily complicated kinetics because of adsorption of the agent to the plastic parts. Two versions of an all-glass perfusion apparatus are described in detail. Both instruments operate on the same basic principle, but differ in size, total recirculating volume, pump rate, perfusion head pressures, maximum perfusate flow rate, maximum linear velocity in the perfusion head, and oxygenation efficiency. Although the maximum protein handling capacity differs for the two apparatuses, this capacity is so limited that it disallows the use of albumin in the perfusate.