RELATIVE HEPATOTOXICITY OF SEVEN HALOGENATED HYDROCARBONS’2

A most interesting phase of toxicology con-tinually posing a problem to the investigator is estimation of the liver-damaging potentiality of a particular agent. Although individual hepato-toxins have been studied extensively, as cited by Drill (1952) and von Oettingen (1955), it is difficult to find reports comparing the compounds in a quantitative manner. One reason for this difficulty is that criteria customarily used for describing liver damage, such as alterations in the results of liver-function tests, are not readily translated into dose-response curves, which are necessary for comparative studies. In this paper we will describe a simple rapid, screening procedure which we have adapted for the (lctection of hepatic damage by a study of seven halogenated hydrocarbons of low molecular weight. The method is based on the prolongation of pentobarbital anesthesia which accompanies liver damage, and the data accumulated can be resolved into standard dose-response curves. The duration of anesthesia (“sleeping time”) was arbitrarily defined as the period between loss and reappearance of the righting reflex. The correla-tion of sleeping time with changes in liver func-tion as measured by BSP (bromsulfalein) reten-tion and liver structure as determined by gross and microscopic examination, will be demon-strated. METHOD. Male albino mice of the Princeton strain, weighing 18 to 25 gm., were used through-out the study. All of the hydrocarbons except 1,1, 1-trichloro-ethane were fractionally distilled; that fraction 1 A preliminary report has been presented befor