MATURATION OF LIVER FUNCTION IN THE CHICK EMBRYO AS EXPLORED WITH S35-SULFOBROMOPHTHALEIN-VASCULAR FACTORS, BILIARY SECRETION, AND CONJUGATION *

Anatomy of the ductus venosus in neonatal dogs (Canis familiaris)

Anatomical features of the ductus venosus in 84 neonatal dogs are described. The ductus venosus was a straight conduit 1-3 mm wide and 4-12 mm long in pups with a crown-rump length of 80-200 mm. It arose from the left main portal vein branch opposite the umbilical vein, passed between the left lateral liver lobe and the papillary process of the caudate lobe, and terminated in the dorsal aspect of the proximal part of the left hepatic vein. The left hepatic vein was dilated at this point. There was no variation in the location of the ductus venosus in the animals studied.

3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl: metabolism by the chick embryo in ovo and toxicity of hydroxylated metabolites

The metabolism of 3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (TCB) has been studied in the chicken in ovo by analysis of bile from chick embryos. Four percent of the [14C]TCB dose injected into the air sac on day 13 of incubation was detected in the bile by day 19. An increase of more lipophilic TCB metabolites was observed by HPLC analysis after hydrolysis of the bile. TCB and three phenolic TCB metabolites were identified and quantified in the hydrolyzed bile: TCB (14 ng/gall bladder), 5-hydroxy-3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (234 ng/gall bladder), 4-hydroxy-3,3',4',5-tetrachlorobiphenyl (45 ng/gall bladder) and 2-hydroxy-3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (3 ng/gall bladder). The presence of two other TCB metabolites in the bile, a dihydroxy-tetrachlorobiphenyl and a dihydroxy-trichlorobiphenyl was also indicated. The method used in the present study is well suited for studies of metabolism in avian embryos in ovo. The three TCB metabolites identified all proved to be at least two orders of magnitude less toxic than TCB in a chick embryo test. These metabolites were also shown to bind with significantly lower affinity than TCB to the Ah receptor. TCB, 5-hydroxy-3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl, 4-hydroxy-3,3',4',5-tetrachlorobiphenyl and 2-hydroxy-3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl gave Kd values of 16, 33, 45 and 37 nM, respectively, in the Ah receptor test.

Changes in free and membrane-bound ribosomes during the development of chick liver. A new cell-fractionation approach

A major difficulty in studying quantitative changes in free and membrane-bound ribosomes in a tissue under different physiological conditions is that membrane-bound ribosomes are not usually recovered quantitatively in a conventional microsomal fraction. This problem was resolved for developing chick liver by determining the conditions for the isolation of a microsomal fraction containing the highest practicable yield of rough vesicles, and then separating it into free-ribosome- and rough-vesicle-containing fractions. With the aid of a marker enzyme for the microsomal membranes and the RNA content of the recovered membrane-bound ribosomes, it was possible to correct for the recovery of rough vesicles and hence to determine the concentration of membrane-bound ribosomes in the homogenate. Despite the fact that morphological studies have suggested that most of the cellular ribosomes are not bound to membrane in chick liver cells at the earliest developmental age studied (6 days of egg incubation), 49% of the total ribosomes were found to be membrane-bound by using the new fractionation technique. This fraction increased (to 66%) during development. The discrepancy between the cell-fractionation and morphological approaches could not be attributed to artifacts of the separation method but rather to difficulties inherent in the morphological approach.

The synthesis of o-aminophenyl glucuronide in several tissues of the domestic fowl, Gallus gallus, during development

1. Synthesis of o-aminophenyl glucuronide has been studied in tissues of the domestic fowl, Gallus gallus, during development. 2. The only route of synthesis detected is glucuronyl transfer from UDP-glucuronic acid, and evidence suggests this to be the major pathway. 3. The pathway exists in liver, to a lesser extent in kidney and alimentary tract, and possibly also in skin. It is absent from spleen and adrenal gland. 4. o-Aminophenyl glucuronide formation, UDP-glucuronyltransferase, UDP-glucuronic acid and UDP-glucose dehydrogenase exist in the embryo liver from at least 12 days of incubation. Transferase activity falls just before hatching and rises suddenly on emergence. Overall synthesis of o-aminophenyl glucuronide observed in liver slices confirms this pattern, which also occurs in kidney. UDP-glucuronyltransferase appears in intestinal mucosa only after hatching, and is absent from embryonic spleen. The allantoic membrane forms no o-aminophenyl glucuronide. 5. These findings are related to the isolated existence of an avian embryo.