Maternal and fetal liver enzymes of mid-to-term pregnant rats chronically treated with magnesium sulphate.
1. Pregnant rats were injected daily with 150 mg/kg body weight magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) starting at the 5th day of gestation and sacrificed at the 13th, 15th, 19th or 21st day of pregnancy. 2. Maternal liver enzymes of glycolysis (HK, PFK, PK, LDH), pentose shunt pathway (G-6-PD) and glutamate metabolism (Ala-T, Asp-T) were unaltered by the treatment. 3. Fetal liver PK, LDH, G-6-PD, Ala-T and Asp-T activities were strongly activated by MgSO4 to levels in some instances as high or even higher than those found in the adult rat liver. 4. Results support recent evidence that MgSO4 induces precocious maturation of certain morphofunctional features of the fetal rat liver. 5. Data presented herein cannot account for the strong deleterious effects of the drug on rat pregnancy. Instead, such effects would be better explained by the direct cell toxicity of MgSO4.
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000187:drug effects*; D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase / Q000032:analysis; D006019:Glycolysis; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*; D008278:Magnesium Sulfate / Q000633:toxicity*; D010428:Pentosephosphates / Q000378:metabolism; D010732:Phosphofructokinase-1 / Q000032:analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D010428:Pentosephosphates; D008278:Magnesium Sulfate; D005954:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase; D010732:Phosphofructokinase-1