title: Hepatocyte differentiation in culture. Appearance of tyrosine aminotransferase.
abstract: Liver of rat foetuses from 14 to 19 days of gestation and cultured hepatocytes derived from foetuses of 14 or 15 days gestation show a limited capacity to transaminate tyrosine. This low tyrosine transamination activity can be ascribed to aspartate aminotransferase. Definitive tyrosine aminotransferase can be demonstrated in 1-day-old cultures of hepatocytes taken from 19-day foetuses, but not from 15-day foetuses. However, after 3 days of culture hepatocytes from 15-day foetuses are able to synthesize tyrosine aminotransferase. Induction studies reveal that dexamethasone is capable of increasing tyrosine aminotransferase activity once it is detectable in culture.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000494:pharmacology; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology / Q000201:enzymology*; D051381:Rats; D014444:Tyrosine Transaminase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D003907:Dexamethasone; D014444:Tyrosine Transaminase