Effect of antihepatocytotoxic serum on DNA synthesis in the rat

Incorporation of thymidine-³H into parenchymatous and reticulo-endothelial cells of the liver was studied autoradiographically in adult female rats treated with small doses (0.06 g/100 g body weight per injection) of antihepatocytotoxic serum (AHTS), the -globulin isolated from it (AHTS), and the -globulin fraction of normal rabbit serum (NRS) to intact animals and to rats with liver damage caused by carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄). Following injection of AHTS and, to a lesser degree, of AHTS into intact animals the index of labeled nuclei of both the parenchymatous and the reticulo-endothelial cells was increased. When given after preliminary CCl₄ administration, AHTS stimulated reparative regeneration. The action of AHTS took place in phases: A period of increase in the index of labeled nuclei was followed by a period of decrease, and this again was followed by a fresh period of stimulation of proliferative processes.Department of Immunology and Cytotoxic Sera, A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. (Presented by Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR N. N. Gorev.) Translated from Byulleten' Éksperimental'noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 86, No. 7, pp. 75–78, July, 1978.