Ammonia and glutamine metabolism was studied in slices from normal, fatty and cirrhotic human livers. The liver disease was evaluated by histological examination. With respect to ammonia removal, urea and glutamine synthesis in human liver represent low and high affinity systems with k0.5(NH4+) values of 3.6 and 0.11 mM, respectively. Compared with normal control livers, cirrhotic livers showed a decreased glutamine synthesis from NH4Cl by about 80%. The same was true for urea synthesis. Conversely, flux through hepatic glutaminase was increased in cirrhosis 4-6-fold. These changes in hepatic glutamine and ammonia metabolism were observed regardless of whether reference was made to liver wet weight, DNA or protein content. Acetazolamide inhibited urea synthesis in cirrhotic liver slices by about 50%, indicating that mitochondrial carbonic anhydrase is required for urea synthesis also in cirrhosis. There was a significant correlation between the in-vitro determined capacity for urea synthesis from NH4Cl and the in-vivo determined plasma bicarbonate concentration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)