title: Chronic choline treatment improves the "in vivo" membrane permeability of old hepatocytes to Rb+.
abstract: Adult and old controls as well as old female rats, treated with choline (100 mg/day in the drinking water) from adulthood, were daily injected intraperitoneally with 30 mg RbCl/100 g body with Rb+. After cessation of the RbCl treatment, the animals were killed at intervals of 2, 4, 9 and 16 days, respectively. The intracellular Rb+ and K+ contents were analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis, whereas concentrations of these two ions were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in the serum. Old animals accumulate more Rb+ than the adult ones at any given time. Choline treatment was able to reduce the amount of accumulated Rb+ in old rats. Rb(+)-discrimination ratio, calculated on the basis of Rb+ and K+ contents of both hepatocyte and serum, is higher in old rats as compared to both adult and old choline-treated rats. Present findings support that chronic choline treatment is effective in improving the passive membrane permeability of hepatocytes for Rb+ in the old animals.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pieri
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability / Q000187:drug effects*; D002794:Choline / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012413:Rubidium / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012413:Rubidium; D002794:Choline