CONNECTION OF DUCTLIKE STRUCTURES INDUCED BY A CHEMICAL HEPATOCARCINOGEN TO PORTAL BILE-DUCTS IN THE RAT-LIVER DETECTED BY INJECTION OF BILE-DUCTS WITH A PIGMENTED BARIUM GELATIN MEDIUM

  • 1 January 1985
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 118  (2) , 218-224
Abstract
Newly found metaplastic duct-like structures that form in the liver of rats exposed to carcinogens are connected to preexisting bile ducts. Male Fischer rats fed a diet of N-2-acetylaminofluorene in a choline-deficient diet (CDAAF) develop a massive proliferation of oval cells which appear to differentiate into bile duct-like structures. Unlike normal or pfoliferating bile ducts, these duct-like structures contain .alpha.-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin, which are markers for proliferating hepatocytes and some hepatocellular carcinomas. Bile duct injections with a green pigmented barium gelatin medium filled the lumens of the duct-like structures and typical duct-like structures induced by the CDAAF diet, as well as the proliferating bile ducts induced by the noncarcinogenic .alpha.-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT) and the ducts in the normal controls. AFP was present in the duct-like structures in the rats fed AAF, but not in the bile ducts of animals fed ANIT. Most, if not all, of the duct-like structures produced during chemical hepatocarcinogenesis are derived from bile ducts, yet have the capacity to produce AFP and albumin.

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