Anaerobic metabolism of carbon tetrachloride and formation of catabolically resistant phospholipids.

Anaerobic incubation of microsomes with 14C-carbon tetrachloride leads to trichloromethyl radicals which, apart from other detrimental reactions, bind covalently to phospholipids. These labelled lipids are extracted, phosphatidylcholine is isolated and incubated with phospholipase A2 from Naja naja snake venom and from porcine pancreas. Half of the covalently modified phosphatidylcholine is resistant toward phospholipase A2. Distribution of such catabolically resistant phospholipids from the endoplasmic reticulum to other cell organelles may play an important role in the pathway leading from the primary lesion to hepatocyte necrosis.