Methotrexate, one of the folic acid antagonist is widely used for treatment of various forms of malignant neoplasms and psoriasis. There are a number of reports of the hepatotoxicity of the drugs, in which the lesions most commonly described were fibr...
Methotrexate, one of the folic acid antagonist is widely used for treatment of various forms of malignant neoplasms and psoriasis. There are a number of reports of the hepatotoxicity of the drugs, in which the lesions most commonly described were fibrosis, fatty change,' cellular degeneration and inflitration by inflammatory cells. This experiment was attempted to observe the toxic effects of methotrexate on liver by evaluation of activities of liver and serum ATPase, 5-nuclotidase, routine liver function and content of RNA, DNA and protein. The rats were injected once in every day intraperitoneally for 3 days with methotrexate and were sacrificed 24 hours after injection.
From this study, the following results were obtained.
1, The activities of Na^(+), K^(+)-ATPase in 15,000xgm supernatant fraction of liver are markedly decreased at 24 hours after first injection of methotrexatebut not significantly different from second and third injection of methotrexate, The activities of Na^(+), K^(+) -ATPase in 15,000xgm precipitate fraction of liver start to decrease from 24hours after second injection of methotrexate and more decrease at 24 hours after third injection of methotrexate, The activities of Mg^(++)-ATPase in 15,000xgm precipitate fraction and supernatant fraction of liver are significantly decreased at 24 hoursafter first injection of methotrexate but not significantly different from second and third injection of methotrexate.
2. The activities of Na^(+) ,K^(+)-ATPase and Mg^(++)-ATPase in serum are increased at 24 hoursafter first injection of rnethotrexate but not significantly different from second and third injection of methotrexate.
3, The activities of 5-nucletidase in liver are decreased in rat treated with methotsexate but not significant in statistics. The activities of 5-nucleotidase in serum are significantly increased inratstreated with methotrexate.
4. The content of DNA in liver are not changed at 24 hours after first and second injection of methotrexate. But significantly decreased at 24 hours after third injection of methotrexate. The Content of RNA in liver are significantly decreased at 24 hours after first injection of methotrexate. The content of protein in liver are not changed in rats with methotrexate injection.