Abstract
To evaluate the influence of hepatic oxygen free radical systems on liver injury by topical p-phenylenediamine (PPD) application on rat skin, PPD (25 mg/16.5 $\textrm{cm}^2$) was topically applied to the abdominal region 5 times every other day and sacrificed. By PPD treatment, increasing rate of liver weight/body weight (%), serum activities of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase and decreasing rate of microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase activity were higher in the rats fed tungstate supplemented diet than those fed a standard diet. These findings indicate that group fed tungstate supplemented diet have more severe liver injury compared with group fed standard diet on topical PPD application. However, the activities of oxygen free radical generating enzymes such as xanthine oxidase (XO) and cytochrome P450 dependent aniline hydroxylase and those of oxygen free radical scavenging enzymes were not found to be different between these two animal groups. In the present study, a novel monitoring method to detect the generating of oxygen free radicals in liver extract was devised. Throughout this method, the oxidized PPD produced by oxygen free radicals was determined colorimetrically. The increasing rate of PPD oxidation by liver homogenate was higher in tungstate fed animals than in standard diet fed ones. Among the fractionations of liver extract, the mitochondrial and postmitochondrial fractions in the liver extract of tungstate fed animals led to a higher availability of PPD oxidation by PPD treatment compared with standard diet fed ones. In conclusion, these results suggest that an enhanced liver injury in tungstate fed animals treated with PPD may be due to oxygen free radicals produced in other systems except oxygen free radicals generating from cytosolic XO system. Especially, oxidative availability by PPD can be used for oxygen free radical detection in some tissue.