Kinetics of liver 14C-glucose incorporation in intact or sectioned tissue treated by suture or adhesive agent (Preliminary report)

Within a program designed to integrally study the course of wound healing following suture or adhesive-agent treatment, glucose turnover was examined in rat hepatic parenchyma. Surgical cuts in the liver were either sutured with non-traumatizing needle and thread or dlued up with a domestic tissue-adhesive cyanoacrylate preparation, Kanokolit B. For assays, liver parenchyma was sampled from the sectioned surface as well as from a 4-mm distant site at time intervals of 30 min, 24 hr, 5 days, and 10 days after surgery. Thirty minutes prior to sacrifice, the animals were injected intraperitoneally with 33-μCi 14C-glucose. Tissue dosimetry measurements were compared with values for samples taken from another lobe of the same liver. In all animals, shifts in glucose turnover rate were observed to occur in the same direction up to a prominent peak of incorporation at day 5. At the later time, glucose turnover proceeded at a slower rate in animals with adhesive-treated wounds as compared to those with sutured wounds. (A.B.)