Rose bengal clearance during hepatic regeneration in rats.

Intravenous I131 Rose bengal clearance was conducted in partially hepatectomized rats with a dose of 1 muCi/100 gm body weight. Blood samples were taken at regular intervals up to 25 minutes which were suitable diluted to count the remaining radioactivity. From these values t1/2 and the clearance constants were worked out upto a period of 120 hr after partial hepatectomy. An analysis of the results show that there is a linear correlation between the rose bengal clearance and the regenerating hepatic mass which may be used for quantitative assessment of functional hepatic mass.