Evaluation of liver function after thioacetamide treatment of partially hepatectomized rabbits.

A group of male rabbits was partially hepatectomized, while another group was administered intraperitoneally with aqueous thioacetamide (TAA) solution (2 mg/kg body weight/alternate day) after partial hepatectomy (PH). The blood samples of animals of both groups were collected on day 10, 15, 20, 30, 60 and 90 following PH and used for various haematological and biochemical analyses. The haemoglobin content decreased significantly within 10 days of PH and gained significant increase 3 months after. An abrupt increase was, however, recorded after TAA treatment. All the enzymatic activities remained unchanged except for that of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which was elevated 87% during the first 10 days of PH. The serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) activity was raised 2.8 times. It was only two months after the operation that the alkaline phosphatase (AP) and LDH activities showed signs of inhibition. The only enzyme affected by TAA treatment after the PH was AP activity, which was inhibited drastically within 15 days after operation. It was concluded that, except for the AP activity and bilirubin and urea content, that essentially decreased in the presence of TAA during the first 15-20 days of experimental period, all the other haematological and biochemical parameters got normalized more quickly in the presence of TAA.