Colchicine-induced inhibition of fat globule development in hepatocytes of rats injected with ethionine.

Abstract

To examine the effect of colchicine on ethionine-induced fatty liver, adult female rats were starved overnight and then injected i.p. with 1 g/kg ethionine at 11th hour of fasting; then a half of the rats were also injected i.p. with 2.5 mg/kg colchicine twice at 3 and 6 h after the single administration of ethionine. Similarly, fasted control rats were injected i.p. with vehicle alone at the above times. All of the rats were sacrificed after a 20-h fast, and the hepatocytes in periportal areas were observed ultrastructurally. In addition, total lipids in the liver tissue were extracted and determined biochemically. Although similar significant increases of triglyceride were observed in the liver tissue of all ethionine-injected rats, the hepatocytes in the group treated with both chemicals had fewer cytoplasmic fat globules (CFG) than those in the group treated with ethionine only. On the other hand, the diameters of markedly increased membrane-bound lipid particles (MLP) in the double-treated group were distributed mainly in the range 0.2-0.4 micron, compared with those (0.1-0.2 micron) in the other groups. These findings indicate that colchicine inhibits the development of CFG in ethionine-injured hepatocytes.