FUNCTION OF LIVER AND OTHER ORGANS DURING LYMPHATIC OBSTRUCTION IN SHEEP

Sheep remained clinically normal and showed no signs of oedema after the thoracic duct was ligated; normal secretion of bile salts and fatty acids into the bile was demonstrated, and serum sorbitol dehydrogenase concentration did not increase. However the clearance of sulphobromophthalein from the plasma was impaired, and this may have been due to a decreased rate of transfer between the lumen of the sinusoids and the vicinity of the hepatic cells. The ability of the intestine to absorb fat was slightly impaired after lymphatic obstruction but it was still capable of absorbing a mean of 88·3 per cent of a dose of 14C‐tripalmitin. The volume of plasma and the total amount of circulating plasma protein increased, and the concentration of lymphocytes in the blood decreased after the thoracic duct was ligated, but the operation without duct ligation did cause pronounced alterations in these parameters. Many direct connections between lymphatics and veins had developed by five to eight weeks after the operations, and all but one of these connections entered the hemiazygos vein or its intercostal tributaries. © 1969 The Physiological Society