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Cellular retinyl esters and retinol among parenchymal and stellate cells in normal rat liver
Author(s) -
Lakshman M. R.,
Sundaresan P. R.,
Chambers Laura L.,
Shoff Pamela K.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
lipids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.601
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1558-9307
pISSN - 0024-4201
DOI - 10.1007/bf02535296
Subject(s) - retinol , parenchyma , hepatic stellate cell , retinyl acetate , high performance liquid chromatography , biology , liver cell , liver cytology , cell , chromatography , biochemistry , endocrinology , medicine , chemistry , vitamin , pathology , liver metabolism
[11,12‐ 3 H] Retinyl acetate (100 μg/20 μCi/rat) in corn oil was fed by stomach tube to normal male Wistar‐Furth rats (∼250 g body weight). After 15 days, the contents of retinyl esters and retinol (total retinol) and their 3 H‐radioactivity were measured in the whole liver, crude parenchymal cells and the purified parenchymal cells, employing differential centrifugation, centrifugal elutriation and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. Of the total liver retinol (nmol/g liver), the crude parenchymal cells had nearly 90%, whereas the purified parenchymal cells had only 21% based on HPLC analysis. Furthermore, of the total liver retinol radioactivity (dpm/g liver) the crude parenchymal cell fraction had 85%, while the purified parenchymal cell fraction had only 16%. Based on the cell number, the crude parenchymal cell fraction was contaminated by retinoid‐rich stellate cells to the extent of 4%. It, therefore, was concluded that the parenchymal cells accounted for 16–21%, whereas the stellate cells contributed 79–84% of total retinol stored in the liver under normal steady‐state conditions. It also was calculated that on a per mg basis, stellate cells had 200 times more total retinol than parenchymal cells, whereas on a per cell basis each stellate cell had 74 times more total retinol than a parenchymal cell.