Thioctic Acid Content and Pyruvate Oxidation in Ethionine-Damaged Rat Livers.

Terminal blood pyruvic acid level was elevated in rats with liver lesions induced by feeding a diet containing ethionine. Pyruvate oxidation by mitochondria from livers of these rats diminished. The hepatic content of thioctic acid was decreased relative to control animals; the thioctic acid content of liver mitochondria was also reduced. In vitro addition of thioctic acid did not stimulate the diminished hepatic mitochondrial pyruvic acid oxidation. Undiminished urinary excretion of thioctic acid, failure of thioctic acid injection to increase the diminished hepatic mitochondrial thioctic acid content, and normal kidney thioctic acid content suggest that total body thioctic acid synthesis is unimpaired but that hepatic thioctic acid “binding” is impaired, in rats fed a diet containing ethionine.