Changes in the activities of enzymes, especially lactate dehydrogenase, in endotoxin-poisoned mice.

Carbohydrate metabolic disorders were investigated by means of enzyme activities in mice (ddYS) injected intraperitoneally with endotoxin from Salmonella typhimurium. The mice exhibited hyperglycemia 2 hr after administration of endotoxin and hypoglycemia at 18 hr. Activity of hepatic phosphorylase in the endotoxin-poisoned mice at 2 hr was slightly higher than that in the control mice, whereas the level of this activity was not significantly different from that in the controls after 18 hr. Glucose-6-phosphatase activity in the poisoned mice increased by 2 hr after injection, but decreased by 18 hr. The blood lactate level in the poisoned mice transiently decreased until 3 hr after injection, but the mice exhibited a marked lactacidemia by 8–24 hr. The time course of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity in various tissues was examined in mice injected with endotoxin. The activity of hepatic LDH declined to about two-thirds of that of the control mice after 16 hr, and was restored to the normal level by 48 hr. LDH in the cardiac muscle was markedly activated (by about 37%) in the early period (3–6 hr) after administration of endotoxin, and this activity gradually declined. However, the activity of LDH in the skeletal muscle showed a tendency similar to the rise and fall of the levels of blood lactate, and was restored to the normal value at 72 hr after injection. On the other hand, the serum LDH activity in the poisoned mice increased about 1.75-fold by 16 hr after injection. Mice injected with endotoxin exhibited a leakage of the isozymes LDH 3 and 5, but the origin of the leakage is uncertain. Similar elevation in the activities of transaminases (GPT and GOT) and malate dehydrogenase was found in the mouse serum at 16 hr after injection of endotoxin.