ANAPLASTIC CARCINOMAS IN NUDE-MICE AND IN ORIGINAL DONOR STRAIN RATS INOCULATED WITH CULTURED OVAL CELLS

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 110  (3) , 322-332
Abstract
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed for 4-5 wk a choline-devoid diet containing 0.1% DL-ethionine. Preparations of nonparenchymal epithelial cells, enriched in oval cells, were isolated from the livers of these animals and were placed in culture. Six lines of hepatic epithelial cells were established. The lines underwent transformation after several passages, became tumorigenic in nude mice and 3 lines also in rats of the same strain of origin of the isolated cells. The tumors were uniformly highly anaplastic carcinomas. Preliminary morphologic, cytologic and cytochemical results were consistent with the tumoral cells being hepatocytelike cells. The findings are viewed and discussed in terms of the cellular source, in vivo, of long-term cultures of rat liver epithelial cells, and in relation to a possible role of hepatic nonparenchymal epithelial cells in the process of hepatocellular tumor induction by chemical carcinogens.