Alpha-Fetoprotein and Albumin Synthesis by Heterotransplanted Rat Liver Tumor Cells

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Abstract
Epithelial cells, isolated from the hepatic tissue of rats bearing carcinogen-induced neoplastic liver nodules, were analyzed by immunological methods for the production of specific liver proteins during alternate in vitro-in vivo passage. Heterotransplantation of several long-term rat liver cell lines into nude mice and subsequent re-establishment in vitro resulted in the derivation of hepatocyte cultures expressing both alpha-fetoprotein and albumin. Prior to passage in vivo these cell lines synthesized only one or neither of these proteins in vitro. Alternate in vitro-in vivo passage thus appears to potentiate tissue-specific protein expression by established liver cell lines.