A comparison of two surgical techniques for preparation of rats with chronic bile duct cannulae for the investigation of enterohepatic circulation.

Two surgical biliary cannulation procedures for study of enterohepatic circulation in chronically cannulated rats were compared in a randomized study. Control rats (group A) had only a jugular vein cannula and no laparotomy, whereas experimental group-B rats additionally had the bile duct cannulated at two locations, one for collecting bile from the liver and the other for returning bile into the duodenum. Experimental group-C rats had the jugular vein cannula as well as the bile duct cannula for collecting bile, but the duodenal wall was cannulated for returning bile to the intestine. Several physiologic and biochemical indicators were monitored daily after surgery, including body weight, bile flow rate, and plasma concentrations of bilirubin and creatinine, and activities of glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and lipase. Overall duration of survival of group-B rats was shorter than that of group-A rats (P < 0.05), whereas no difference was found between groups A and C. Group-B rats had higher bilirubin concentration than did controls (P < 0.05), whereas group-C rats did not. Group-B rats had higher plasma lipase activity than did rats of the other two groups, and this analyte was more variable in group-B rats. Rats of groups B and C had high GPT activity after surgery (P < 0.05). A statistically significant loss of body weight was associated with group-B rats over 8 days after surgery and for group-C rats over 2 days after surgery, after which body weight stabilized in group-C rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)