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Functional Markers and Growth Behavior of Preneoplastic Hepatocytes¹

Division of Experimental Pathology, Naylor Dana Institute for Disease Prevention, American Health Foundation, Valhalla, New York 10595

Functional markers and growth behavior of abnormal hepatocytes at several stages of liver carcinogenesis were studied. Early lesions, i.e., hyperplastic foci and areas, did not accumulate iron in siderotic livers, had persistent glycogen stores, were not more agglutinable by concanavalin A, and were associated with -fetoprotein secretion, but were not independent secretors of high amounts. The cells in the early lesions had an increased mitotic index, but cells from livers with early lesions did not have an increased survival in cell culture or the ability to grow in soft agar. The more developed lesions, hyperplastic nodules, also did not store iron, had persistent glycogen, did not display increased concanavalin A agglutinability, and were not independent secretors of high levels of -fetoprotein. Similarly, nodule cells were proliferative but did not display an increase in survival in cell culture. In addition, both iso- and autotransplantation of nodules into mammary fat pads resulted in persistence but not growth of nodule cells. On the other hand, hepatocellular carcinomas regularly grew upon transplantation. Thus, early lesions and hyperplastic nodules were proliferative lesions but did not possess autonomous growth capability comparable to that of hepatocellular carcinomas.

¹ Presented at the Conference, "Early Lesions and the Development of Epithelial Cancer," October 21 to 23, 1975, Bethesda, Md. This work was supported by an Alexander Rolston Peacock Memorial Grant for Cancer Research (BC-133A) from the American Cancer Society.