[Effect of sex and phase of the estrous cycle on the intensity of the damage and recovery processes in the liver of rats following acute carbon tetrachloride poisoning].

Morphometric, histochemical, and electron microscope methods were applied to the study of peculiarities of Wistar rat liver damage and recovery, depending on sex and phase of the estrous cycle, and also under conditions of deficiency of sex hormones and after the beta-estradiol injection to ovariectomized animals. A marked increase of the structural alterations caused by CCl4 and inhibition of the restoration reactions in the liver of female animals, both during the natural increase of blood estrogen concentration and under the effect of exogenous estradiol, as well as the protective effect of ovariectomy were demonstrated. As for male rats, the structural damage in the liver was more expressed than in the females with a low blood estrogen level and differed but little from the changes in the female animals during increased sex steroids secretion.