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DNA content was measured by flow cytometry in isolated nuclei from 71 neoplastic nodules and 15 hepatocellular carcinomas isolated from rat liver at various times after treatment with an initiation--promotion regimen employing diethylnitrosamine and 2-acetylaminofluorene. Nodules and carcinomas contained mostly diploid nuclei as compared with both surrounding and normal hepatocytes which were predominantly polyploid. There appears to be a positive correlation between the degree of diploidy in nodules and their rate of proliferation. No aneuploid populations were identified in any neoplasm despite good peak resolution. These results show that an alteration in proliferation pattern from normal polyploidizing growth to diploid--diploid divisional growth is a consistent characteristic throughout the carcinogenic process in our experimental model.

Liver carcinogenesis was initiated in young rats by diethylnitrosamine/partial hepatectomy and promoted by dietary 2-acetylaminofluorene (for 4 weeks). Eight weeks after initiation, hepatocytes were isolated by means of collagenase perfusion and analyzed by means of flow cytometry. Whereas cells and cell nuclei from normal or hepatectomized livers were predominantly tetraploid, most of the hepatocytes/nuclei from carcinogen-treated rats were diploid. Neoplastic liver nodules and hepatocellular carcinomas also contained almost exclusively diploid nuclei, suggesting that diploidization may be an essential feature of liver carcinogenesis. Two-parametric analysis (simultaneous flow cytometric determination of DNA and protein content within the same cell) revealed that the diploid cells were only half as big as the tetraploid cells. They could therefore be separated from the latter by centrifugal elutriation. Normal, isolated hepatocytes responded to amino acid deprivation by increasing their rates of autophagic sequestration (measured with electroinjected (14C)sucrose as a probe) and endogenous protein degradation, the resulting protein loss eventually leading to cell death. Hepatocytes from carcinogen-treated rats were much less responsive to amino acid deprivation, preserved their protein better, and survived for longer periods of time in culture than did normal cells. The reduced autophagic responsiveness may conceivably give carcinogen-altered cells a survival advantage even in vivo, that could contribute to their outgrowth during carcinogenesis.

The amino acid and energy requirements of rat hepatocytes in suspension and early culture were investigated. Among a number of potential energy substrates tested, pyruvate (20 mM) was found to be most effective in stimulating hepatocytic protein synthesis. Amino acids stimulated protein synthesis both as energy substrates and as protein precursors. An amino acid mixture was designed to provide maximal inhibition of protein degradation as well as maximal stimulation of protein synthesis. In a defined medium containing amino acids at these concentrations, and supplemented with glucocorticoid hormone and insulin, hepatocytes could be maintained--on a collagen substratum--for at least a week without any significant net loss of cells or cellular protein.

Sequential carcinogen treatment (diethylnitrosamine/partial hepatectomy followed by 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF] induced multiple hepatocarcinomas in rats with 100% certainty within a year. Enzyme-altered lesions, i.e. gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT)-positive and/or ATPase-negative cell foci, were numerous already at 8 weeks, and suspensions of purified hepatocytes isolated (by collagenase perfusion) at this time contained 30-40% GGT-positive cells. These hepatocyte suspensions were markedly deficient with respect to autophagic protein degradation (in comparison with cell suspensions from normal rats), and the cells lost less protein and survived much better than normal hepatocytes in culture under conditions of amino acid deprivation (which activates the autophagic mechanism). The anabolic advantage of reduced autophagy may possibly contribute to the selective outgrowth of preneoplastic cells during the earliest stage of liver carcinogenesis. Inclusion of the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine in the culture medium elevated the survival of normal hepatocytes up to the level seen with hepatocytes from carcinogen-treated animals, suggesting that protection of normal cells by autophagy suppression may be a potentially interesting therapeutic principle.

2-Acetylaminofluorene (AAF), given in the diet at 0.02% for 4 weeks, is an effective promoter of liver carcinogenesis initiated by partial hepatectomy (PH) plus diethylnitrosamine (DEN) in the inbred rat strain Wistar Kyoto. AAF promotes the early (6 week) appearance of phenotypically altered (gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase-positive) cells as well as the later appearance of neoplastic nodules (2-4 months) and hepatocarcinomas (4-8 months). Promotion does not seem to involve selective cytotoxicity (selection of AAF-resistant hepatocytes), since neither AAF alone nor DEN + AAF has any inhibitory effect on overall liver growth.

The sequential treatment of young Wistar rats with two different carcinogens (diethylnitrosamine - plus partial hepatectomy - as an initiator, and 2-acetylaminofluorene as a cytotoxic selection pressure) induces the appearance of foci and nodules of liver cells which are phenotypically altered. By means of an algorithm which takes into account binuclearity as well as cell-to-cell aggregation it is possible to compute cellular ploidy distributions from flow-cytometric analysis of either hepatocyte suspensions or suspensions of hepatocytic nuclei. Cell suspensions isolated from carcinogen-treated rats can be shown to contain, already after 8 weeks, approximately 70% small, diploid hepatocytes, whereas suspensions from normal or partially hepatectomized control livers contain only approximately 10% diploid cells (the remainder being mostly tetraploid). Isolated nodules, i.e., expanding clones of proliferating cells, believed to be neoplastic precursor lesions, contained almost only diploid cells. These observations suggest that the selective outgrowth of a population of small, diploid hepatocytes may be a significant early step in the development of liver cancer.

Insulin partially inhibits endogenous protein degradation in isolated hepatocytes. The inhibition seems to specifically affect the lysosomal pathway of degradation, since it is not additive to the effects of lysosome inhibitors such as propylamine and leupeptin. The insulin effect is potentiated by intermediate concentrations of amino acids, but is largely abolished at high amino acid concentrations which suppress degradation maximally, suggesting that the hormone may exert its effect indirectly by acting upon the more basal amino acid control mechanism. Glucagon, which stimulates protein degradation, similarly displays its effect only in the presence of intermediate amino acid concentrations. The insulin inhibition is not affected by the aminotransferase inhibitor, aminooxyacetate, indicating that it is not due to interference with amino acid metabolism. Protein synthesis furthermore does not seem to be required, since a significant insulin effect can be seen in the presence of the protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide. The issue is, however, complicated by the fact that cycloheximide itself inhibits protein degradation to approximately the same extent as does insulin. Insulin stimulates uptake of the amino acid alpha-aminoisobutyrate (AIB), but not the uptake of valine, indicating a specific stimulation of 'A'-type transport. Cycloheximide similarly stimulates AIB uptake, without completely obfuscating the transport effect of insulin. Neither protein synthesis, protein degradation, amino acid transport, nor the effects of insulin were affected by cell-to-substratum anchorage (attachment and spreading) in any detectable way.

The effect of tri-iodothyronine (T3) on protein turnover was studied using primary cultures of rat hepatocytes. Protein synthesis was significantly stimulated in cells cultured for 6 days in the presence of T3 (1 mumol/l). Protein secretion into the culture medium was not affected by the hormone. Breakdown of long-lived proteins, the bulk of cellular proteins which are preferentially degraded through the autophagic lysosomal pathway, was significantly stimulated by the hormone. It is concluded that T3 elicits a general stimulation of protein turnover in cultured hepatocytes.

Hepatocyte suspensions prepared from inbred male Wistar-Kyoto rats were transplanted to the livers of syngeneic recipients by injection into the portal venous system immediately after partial hepatectomy. Donor cells were labelled with 51Cr in vitro before transplantation. Animals were sacrificed 1 hr, 10 hr, 48 hr, or 1 week later and the liver radioactivity was measured in a gamma counter. Total liver radioactivity declined rapidly during the first 10 hr after transplantation, and then stabilized. After 1 week, 15-20% of the injected radioactivity still remained, indicating that this fraction of the injected cells was retained by the liver. The percentage was unaffected by the number of cells injected. In another experiment, 10(6) hepatocytes from a carcinogen-treated rat were transplanted to syngeneic rats fed 0.05% phenobarbital in the diet. Recipients developed liver carcinomas from 7 weeks after transplantation, and at 5 months 4 out of 5 animals showed severe debility and had large hepatocellular carcinomas. This model generates tumors considerably faster than those previously described, and is well suited for the study of the tumorigenic potential of subclasses of cells in liver carcinogenesis.