Liver Injury in the Dog Following Use of 2-3-Dithiopropinol (BAL)

Abstract

Fifteen adult dogs furnish the basis for the observations which are to follow. The animals were kept in metabolism cages and given a diet of Purina Dog Chow. No restriction as to the amount was made in the diet or in the water intake. The dithiol was given intramuscularly at 9 a. m. and 9 p. m. on 4 successive days. The dogs were divided into 3 groups. The animals of Group I were given 5 mg per kilo of the dithiol per dose, those of Group II, 15 mg and the members of Group III, 30 mg per kilo. Prior to the commencement of the injections liver function studies were undertaken by the use of bromsulfalein according to the technique devised by Rosenthal and White. 1 For the normal animals and those of Group I, such observations have been satisfactory in that all of the dye was removed from the plasma within half an hour. In the animals of Group II and Group III receiving respectively 15 and 30 mg of dithiol per kilo the rate of removal was invariably prolonged beyond the half-hour period. The percentage removal however during this and subsequent periods was extremely variable. The evidence for the development of a liver injury from the dithiol is not confined to such variable functional observations but has been ascertained by obtaining biopsy material from the livers and by the study of such tissue in those animals that came to autopsy. The tissue was stained for lipoid material with Scharlach R and also with hematoxylin and eosin. A study of such material permits the following conclusions:

1. In the animals of Group I which received 5 mg of 2-3-dithiopropinol per kilo it was difficult if not impossible to ascertain by such a micro-chemical method whether or not there was any actual increase in lipoid material in the hepatic epithelium over that which can be frequently observed in such tissue designated as normal.