Abstract
The importance of diet in the normal physiology of the liver and in the protection of the liver from the action of such damaging substances as chloroform and carbon tetrachloride has been brought to the attention by many investigators. 1-7
Since we found that sodium sulfapyridine exerts a definite and characteristic effect on the levels of blood sugar and liver glycogen, 8 we wished to study the effects of various diets on the action of sodium sulfapyridine and sodium sulfathiazole in rats. The diets used to date are Purina Dog Chow Checkers as the balanced diet, and experimental diets in which protein, carbohydrate and fat form about 87% of the caloric value of the diet. 9
In these studies the rats were kept on the special diets for one week, and were not fasted before the experiment. The daily food intake and gain or loss in body weight during the last week were recorded. This information, together with the blood sugar, liver glycogen (expressed both as per cent of liver weight and as mg per 100 g of body weight), free, total and acetylated levels of the drug in the blood is shown in Table 1.
One dose of the drug to be studied was given by intraperitoneal injection. 7.5% solutions were used; 1 cc per 100 g of body weight was given. The animals were killed 3 hr later.
It will be noticed that the administration of sodium sulfapyridine to rats that have been on the balanced diet leads to a decided decrease in liver weight, an increase in blood sugar and a decrease of 68% in liver glycogen (calculated from mg of liver glycogen per 100 g of body weight). The changes which follow the administration of sodium sulfathiazole are in the same direction but less marked; the level of the drug in the blood was lower in this group.
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