Enzymatic impairment induced by biological aldehydes in intact rat liver cells.

The addition of lipid peroxidation end-products, 4-hydroxypentenal (HPE), 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) or hexanal (HEX) to the incubation medium of rat hepatocytes caused a significant decrease of cytochrome P-450 content and inactivation of total cell glucose-6-phosphatase. In particular, the two hydroxyalkenals exerted their inhibitory action at micromolar concentration. These results on intact cells further support a possible damaging effect of aldehydes in pathological conditions in which a stimulation of lipid peroxidation occurs.