Isolation and partial characterization of a bile canalicular plasma membrane fraction from normal and regenerating rat liver.

Abstract A bile canalicular membrane fraction was isolated from 24-hour regenerating rat livers, and its properties were compared to those of homologous fractions prepared from the livers of sham-operated and unoperated controls. These canalicular membrane fractions were found to be closely related in terms of their morphology, their purity, their yield, and their qualitative protein banding profiles on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels. However, when a rigorous examination of plasma membrane enzyme marker activities was made, the regenerating liver membranes were shown to possess an increased specific activity of alkaline phosphatase and lower levels of Mg2+ ATPase and 5'-nucleotidase in comparison with control specific activity values.