Alpha-fetoprotein and albumin synthesis by heterotransplanted rat liver tumor cells.
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 by 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.
D000418:Albumins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005260:Female; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D051381:Rats; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D000418:Albumins; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins