Relationship between antioxidant systems, intracellular thiols and DNA ploidy in liver of rats during experimental cirrhogenesis.

Hyperplastic nodular cirrhosis was induced in rats by long-term (6 month) i.p. administration of thioacetamide at doses of 2.66 mmol/kg body wt, three times per week. The survival rate of animals at the end of the treatment was 90%. To follow the temporal changes samples at 0, 7, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 150 and 180 days from rats during thioacetamide intoxication and from chronological controls were obtained. The cirrhogenic ability of this treatment was assessed on the basis of morphological changes: the development of macronodular cirrhosis and the appearance of fibrous septa of collagen through portal spaces. Parameters of liver injury and cholestasis were obtained by assaying the serum activities of isocitrate dehydrogenase and gamma-glutamyltransferase. Enzymes and metabolites related to glutathione redox systems, as well as other antioxidant enzymes, were tested. Catalase and glutathione peroxidase, the two enzymes involved in the elimination of peroxides, and glutathione reductase decreased significantly at the end of the 6 months of intoxication, while Cu-Zn and Mn superoxide dismutases increased progressively during the long-term thioacetamide treatment. Protein thiol levels profile showed a biphasic change increasing from the 7th day and were insensitive to the 30% depletion of intracellular glutathione (GSH). To study the relationship of the intracellular thiols on the mechanisms of cell proliferation and differentiation during the cirrhogenic process, DNA content was assayed by flow cytometry in isolated hepatocytes, and DNA ploidy and distribution between G0-G1, S and G2 + M phases were determined. Remarkable changes in relation to a sharp increase in diploid population from 7 to 180 days (24.5%-->85.5%), a pronounced decrease in polyploid populations (tetraploid+octoploid) in the same period (73.7%-->12.3%), and elevations in the populations in S phase (S1 + S2) were observed in thioacetamide-treated rats. The results obtained indicate that hepatocytes isolated from thioacetamide-treated rats showed a marked tendency to diploidy, an enhancement in DNA replication parallel to the hepatic content of protein sulphydryl groups and a significant decline in antioxidant enzyme activities. The increase in protein thiols was independent of GSH level and of the thiol redox state.