Reproductive Performance and Effects of Pregnancy on the Acute Phase of Hepatitis in LEC Rats

Abstract

LEC rats have been established as a mutant strain that suffers from fulminant hepatitis and severe jaundice at about 4 months of age [1, 2]. The clinical symptoms of hepatitis include severe jaundice, a bleeding tendency, oliguria, loss of body weight, and elevation of the serum levels of bilirubin and hepatic enzymes, such as glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT). About one-half of the animals die within 1 week after the onset of jaundice and, in survivors, hepatocellular carcinoma spontaneously appears after 1 or 1.5 years of age [3]. Recently we described clinico-pathological studies of LEC rats in the acute phase of hepatitis, and made it clear that this phase started 3–4 weeks before the onset of fulminant hepatitis [4]. On the other hand, the sexual maturity of the LEC rat is usually achieved by around the age at which the hepatitis occurs. Therefore, the breeding of LEC rats seems to be highly influenced by a decrease of breeding rate due to the hepatitis.