Abstract
Summary and Conclusions
Our experiments confirm the observations of Neale and Winter5 that xanthine has a protective action against carbon tetrachloride poisoning. The extent of the necrosis in the liver lobule is decreased by xanthine. Liver protection was observed best in rats killed 48 hours after the administration of carbon tetrachloride. At this time the damage in the livers from the xanthine-treated animals was limited to a small area around the central lobular vein, whereas in the controls the necrotic area involved from 50 to 80% of the liver lobule.
Xanthine given prior to a moderately toxic dose of carbon tetrachloride lowered the mortality rate. When large closes of carbon tetrachloride were administered, no difference in the mortality rate was observed.
We observed no evidence that xanthine stimulated the regeneration of cells in the damaged livers. The number of mitotic figures in the livers of the xanthine-treated rats did not differ significantly from the number in the livers of the controls.
Mitosis increased in rate from the 24-hour period to the 48-hour period. At the 48-hour period it was occurring rapidly in the livers of both the controls and the xanthine-treated rats. After 48 hours the number of mitotic figures per thousand hepatic cells decreased. By 96 hours relatively few cells were in mitosis.
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