[The excretion of hippuric acid and ascorbic acid in the urine of liver-damaged rats (author's transl].

The authors investigated the effects of the administration of thioacetamide, carbon tetrachloride and aminophenazone on the excretion of ascorbic acid and hippuric acid in adult male and female Wistar rats. After a single application of thioacetamide and aminophenazone, the ascorbic acid content in the urine showed a dose-dependent increase, whereas that in the liver had decreased. This increase in the urinary ascorbic acid might be due to a release of stored ascorbic acid from the liver cells. When thioacetamide was given for a prolonged period, the ascorbic acid content in the urine increased at the beginning; later one, at the end of three weeks, it was slightly inferior to the control value. Both single and repeated applications of thioacetamide led to a decrease in the excretion of hippuric acid in the urine, which is attributed to an impairment of the mitochondrial hippuric acid synthesis. Long-term treatment with aminophenazone resulted in an increase of ascorbic acid in the urine, which is indicative of an induction effect, whereas the ascorbic acid content in the liver remained unchanged. There was no effect on the excretion of hippuric acid. In regard to their use in the toxicological evaluation of drugs, these two metabolic effects offer no decisive advantage over current liver function tests.