We examined the possibility of quantitative differences in lactate entry into periportal and perivenous hepatocytes under different nutritional states. The rate of14C-L(+)-lactate uptake was determined after 15-second incubations with freshly isolated zonally separated hepatocytes using a centrifuge stop technique at 37 °C and 4 °C, in the presence or absence of either differing amounts of unlabelled lactate or of a hepatocyte lactate transport inhibitor,α-cyano-3-hydroxycinnamate. Total entry as well as carrier mediated entry of14C-L(+)-lactate into the isolated cell populations was found to be similar in periportal and perivenous hepatocytes, irrespective of the nutritional state of the animal. Periportal and perivenous hepatocytes showed a greater tendency to transport lactate when isolated from starved animals, in agreement with previously reported data from non-zonally separated isolated hepatocytes. The activity of the hepatocyte plasma-membrane lactate transporter was diminished between fourfold and eightfold in transport studies conducted at 4 °C; similar results were obtained in unseparated and zonally separated suspensions. Temperature dependence of the hepatocyte transporter is markedly less than that reported for the erythrocyte transporter.

This content is only available as a PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.