title: Overexpression of transforming growth factor-alpha causes liver enlargement and increased hepatocyte proliferation in transgenic mice.
abstract: Transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF-alpha) expression is associated with hepatocyte DNA replication both in vivo and in culture. Our previous work using TGF-alpha transgenic mice showed that constitutive overexpression of this growth factor in the liver causes hepatic tumors in 75 to 80% of the animals at 12 to 15 months of age. To understand the cellular events by which TGF-alpha overexpression leads to abnormal liver growth, we examined hepatocyte proliferative activity in young and old TGF-alpha transgenic mice and hepatocyte ploidy in normal, dysplastic, and neoplastic livers of these animals. At 4 weeks of age, transgenic mice had higher liver weights and liver weight/body weight ratios than non-transgenic mice of the same age and hepatocyte proliferative activity, measured by 3H-thymidine incorporation after 3- and 7-day infusion, proliferating cell nuclear antigen staining, and mitotic index determination, was 2 to 3 times higher than in controls. In both transgenic and non-transgenic mice hepatocyte proliferation declined with age but the decrease was much more pronounced in control animals, so that at 8 months of age, hepatocyte replication was 8 to 10 times higher in transgenic animals. Surprisingly, however, transgenic and non-transgenic mice at this age had similar liver weight/body weight ratios. Labeling studies done in 3-month-old animals revealed that hepatocyte turnover was much faster in transgenic than in control animals, suggesting that a homeostatic compensatory mechanism involving cell death tended to restore normal liver weight/body weight ratios in older transgenic mice. Ploidy analyses showed that at 4 weeks of age transgenic mice had a higher proportion of diploid and tetraploid hepatocytes and that the hepatocellular tumors which developed in TGF-alpha transgenic mice at 13 months of age contained a higher fraction of diploid hepatocytes than that present in adjacent tissue or in dysplastic livers. The results demonstrate that constitutive overexpression of TGF-alpha causes increased hepatocyte proliferation and liver enlargement in young animals and is associated with a delay in the establishment of hepatic polyploidy. These findings as well as the response of transgenic mice to partial hepatectomy show that constitutive overexpression of TGF-alpha initially caused increased but regulated hepatocyte proliferation which in older animals was compensated in part by a faster cell turnover. At 8 to 10 months of age, proliferative activity may become constitutive in some TGF-alpha expressing hepatocytes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, RI 02912.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Webber
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Merlino
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fausto
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000235:genetics; D002453:Cell Cycle; D002455:Cell Division; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D008115:Liver Regeneration; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic / Q000235:genetics*; D009929:Organ Size; D011003:Ploidies; D012016:Reference Values; D016211:Transforming Growth Factor alpha / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016211:Transforming Growth Factor alpha