The influence of hemodilution in normal and cirrhotic rats in relation to hepatic energy metabolism.

The effects of acute hemodilution on hepatic energy status were compared between carbon-tetrachloride-induced cirrhotic rats and normal rats, using arterial blood ketone body ratio and hepatic energy charge as indices. Arterial blood was withdrawn and replaced with rat plasma in hemodiluted rats and with whole blood in sham-diluted control rats. In normal rats, arterial blood ketone body ratio and energy charge level at 6 hours after hemodilution decreased when the hematocrit value was less than 15%. In contrast, the values decreased at an even higher hematocrit level in cirrhotic rats. It was suggested from these results that the hemodilution procedure exerts a more profound hypoxic effect at a milder hemodilution on a cirrhotic liver than on a normal liver.