SEPARATION OF 2 POPULATIONS OF CELLS WITH GAMMA-GLUTAMYL-TRANSFERASE TRANSPEPTIDASE FROM CARCINOGEN-TREATED RAT-LIVER

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 66  (5) , 967-973
Abstract
Noninbred Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained on a choline-deficient diet containing 0.05% ethionine. After 10-13 wk, livers were dispersed with collagenase, lysozyme, collagenase and hyaluronidase, pronase or a selected batch of trypsin. The highest yield of cells with histochemically demonstrable .gamma.-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) was obtained with trypsin. After velocity sedimentation in an isokinetic gradient of Ficoll in tissue culture medium, 2 modal populations of cells with histochemically demonstrable GGT were observed. The 1st mode contained cells that were morphologically different from hepatocytes and that may be oval cells. The 2nd, more rapidly sedimenting modal population of cells with GGT was morphologically similar to hepatocytes as assessed with Wright''s stain; the location of this population in the gradient was the same as the location of cells with the appearance of hepatocytes that lacked Fe and that had decreased glucose-6-phosphatase. In multiple experiments, the purest fractions contained 71.7 .+-. 3.5% cells (mean .+-. SD) with the appearance of hepatocytes with histochemically demonstrable GGT.