Acute suppression of albumin synthesis in systemic inflammatory disease: an individually graded response of rat hepatocytes.

The effects of an inflammatory insult on albumin of the rat liver were investigated at the cellular level and were correlated with serum albumin concentration. After SC injection of turpentine, the livers were perfused and fixed in vivo; serial liver sections were stained using a streptavidin-ABC-immunoperoxidase technique with an antibody to rat albumin. Albumin and total protein were measured at intervals after turpentine injection in whole livers and in serum. Fibrinogen was determined in plasma only. Twenty-four hours after turpentine injection serum albumin had dropped by 25% and was at 50% of its initial value at Day 3. Serum fibrinogen increased 2.4-fold within 24 hr and decreased thereafter. Liver homogenates showed no significant changes in albumin concentration. Immunohistochemically, all hepatocytes stained positive for albumin in normal animals. During inflammation, the immunostainable albumin content vanished entirely in a majority of all hepatocytes while remaining unchanged in other cells, thus producing a strikingly patchy staining pattern. No signs of resumption of albumin accumulation in depleted hepatocytes were seen after 8 days, despite a clear trend towards normalization of serum albumin concentration. These results suggest that individual hepatocytes differ widely in their response to agents that suppress albumin synthesis in an acute-phase reaction.