THE EFFECT OF NUTRITIONAL STATE ON PHOSPHORYLASE ACTIVITY IN THE LIVER: A HISTOCHEMICAL STUDY

LUIZ A. FAGUNDE ¹ and RICHARD B. COHEN ¹

¹ Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School and The James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories of the Massacushetts General Hsopital, Boston, Massachusetts

Phosphorylase activity was studied in the hepatic lobule in the young male rat using a histochemical approach. In normal animals a diurnal variations in activity was observed characterized by low, irregularly distributed activity in the early morning with progressively increasing activity into the afternoon. In starved animals a more marked progressive increase in phosphorylase activity was demonstrated during the first 8 hr of starvation with increased activity seen throughout the lobule but accentuated in the periphery. After 12 hr of starvation there was a progressive decrease in centrilobular activity but peripheral activity remained undiminished until obout 48 hr of starvation, after which it also decreased. The increased activity in the afternoon in the normal a animal was attributed to the nocturnal feeding habits and resultant relatively poor nutritional state in the afternoon.

Rise in phosphorylase activity in the early phase (4 hr) of starvation could be prevented by a single close of glucose by stomach tube. No effect of glucose was evident in intermediate term starvation until periods of 48-72 hr were reached, at which time a single dose of glucose by tube produced a marked increase in phosphorylase activity throughout the lobule within 4 hr of its administration.

The basis for these findings and their possible significance is discussed.

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