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Increased Serum IgA Levels in Rats after Portacaval Shunt but not after Portacaval Transposition
Author(s) -
VAERMAN J. P.,
LEMAÎTRECOELHO I.,
McSWEEN R. N. M.,
BENJAMIN I. S.,
THOMAS H. C.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.934
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1365-3083
pISSN - 0300-9475
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3083.1981.tb00192.x
Subject(s) - portacaval shunt , medicine , endocrinology , portacaval anastomosis , transposition (logic) , transferrin , liver function , portal hypertension , cirrhosis , linguistics , philosophy
Groups of rats were submitted to end‐to‐side portacaval shunt, portacaval transposition or a control sham operation. There was an 18‐fold increase of the IgA level in the serum of portacavally shunted rats ( n =7) at 3–6 weeks after surgery. Gel filtration revealed that this increase was predominantly due to dimeric and polymeric IgA. The serum IgM of these shunted rats, but not the IgG, was also significantly increased (twofold) above that control values. In rats subjected to portacaval transposition ( n =6), there was no significant increase of serum IgA, IgM or IgG when compared with their control values. These data confirm the active transfer, by the healthy rat liver, of IgA and, to a lesser extent, of IgM from the blood into bile. Impairment of this function, leading to the accumulation of polymeric IgA and IgM in the serum, in portacavally shunted but not portacavally transposed animals, may be related to impairment of hepatic blood Hot and hepatic atrophy, shown earlier to occur in portacavally shunted but not transposed rats. Such redaction in liver cell mass could also explain the fall in transferrin levels in shunted rats.