Effect of aging on liver functions-an experimental study in a perfused rat liver model.
BACKGROUND
Aging is associated with marked changes in the physiology of many organs. Aging of the liver has been little studied and findings are inconclusive. The purpose of this work was to determine the effect of aging on transport and metabolic functions of the liver as assessed by extraction ratio of indocyanine green (ICG) and urea flux respectively. Bile flow was also recorded. As ICG is removed exclusively by the liver without bioconversion, its clearance reflects hepatic functional mass.


METHODS
Livers from adult (3-month old) or old (24-month old) rats were perfused in a recirculating system for 90 min. At time 30 min, a bolus of 0.125 mg of indocyanine green was introduced in the perfusion buffer. At least every 10 minutes, the perfusion buffer was sampled for the measurements of ICG and urea. Bile flow was closely monitored throughout the experiment.


RESULTS
Extraction ratio of ICG was increased in livers from old rats (9.49 +/- 2.84 vs 3.70 +/- 1.56% of ICG extracted), whereas urea flux was diminished (0.33 +/- 0.06 vs 1.33 +/- 0.65 micromol/min/% of ICG extracted) and bile flow was unchanged (4.03 +/- 1.02 vs 3.57 +/- 1.34 microl/min).


CONCLUSIONS
Aging does not affect the different functions of the liver in the same way. It increases hepatocellular uptake function, but decreases the metabolic function of hepatocytes and does not change excretion function. These discrepancies are likely to be of some importance in the study of drug metabolism and action, and so we suggest that results should be corrected for ICG extraction.
Jourdan
Marion
M
Laboratory of Biological Nutrition EA 2498, 4 avenue de l'Observatoire; 75270 Paris cedex 06, France. marion.jourdan@wanadoo.fr
Vaubourdolle
Michel
M
Cynober
Luc
L
Aussel
Christian
C
D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001646:Bile / Q000378:metabolism; D004396:Coloring Agents; D007208:Indocyanine Green; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008102:Liver Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014508:Urea / Q000378:metabolism
D004396:Coloring Agents; D014508:Urea; D007208:Indocyanine Green