A comparison of the effects of phenobarbital and medroxyprogesterone acetate on drug and glucose metabolism in rats with chemical liver injury.

The effects of medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and phenobarbital (PB) on hepatic glucose and drug metabolism were investigated in male rats after liver injury, induced with dimethylnitrosamine (DMN). MPA normalized fasting blood glucose (BG) and serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI) levels and enhanced hepatic glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) and NADPH cytochrome P450 reductase activities and glycogen and cytochrome P450 (cytP450) contents after liver injury. PB improved hepatic glycogen and cytP450 contents and NADPH cytP450 reductase activity in DMN pretreated rats. The increase in drug metabolism was more pronounced after PB than MPA therapy whereas MPA had more effect on glucose metabolism than had PB. This suggests that the inducing properties of these compounds diverge from each other.