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Biomedical subjects

E Farber

Publications and source records attributed to E Farber.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Ethylene dibromide as a mitogen for liver.

Intubation of ethylene dibromide (7.5 to 10 mg. per 100 gm. of body weight) into the stomach of nonfasted Wistar rats induces DNA synthesis and cell division in the liver. The peak of DNA synthesis, as measured by 3H-methyl thymidine incorporation, was attained at or shortly after 24 hours. The mitotic waves measured with the aid of colchicine occurred at 24 to 30 hours and 48 to 54 hours after ethylene dibromide treatment. Approximately 16 per cent of liver cells entered mitosis. The increase in DNA synthesis was confirmed by autoradiography. The stimulation of liver cell mitosis occurs in nonfasted animals without apparent cell necrosis. Thus, ethylene dibromide appears to be an effective mitogen for liver under some experimental conditions. The possible relationship between the mitogenic effect at a low dosage range and necrosis at a higher range is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Gamma-glutamyltransferase in putative premalignant liver cell populations during hepatocarcinogenesis.

The activity of gamma-glutamyltransferase, as measured quantitatively and by histochemical staining, was studied in different cell populations during the induction of liver cancer with 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) or diethylnitrosamine and compared with findings in fetal and in intact and regenerating adult liver. The enzyme activity is 20-fold higher in 12-week nodules than in control livers and 30-fold higher in 20-week nodules than in controls. A similar 30-fold increase in activity relative to control is present in hepatomas, induced by either 2-AAF or diethylnitrosamine, and in fetal hepatocytes. The enzyme shows increases in activity in foci of very early putative preneoplastic hepatocytes induced by a single dose of diethylnitrosamine and selected by low doses of 2-AAF plus partial hepatectomy. By 7 days, the foci show a 4-fold increase in enzyme activity, and by 3 weeks they are 40-fold higher than in the control liver. Histochemically, the foci are strongly positive for gamma-glutamyltransferase, especially in the bile canaliculi. By 21 days, the ductular (oval) cells induced by 2-AAF have disappeared. When stained for the enzyme activity, the foci stand out clearly against the negative background of the liver, allowing easy quantitation. It appears that gamma-glutamyltransferase is a useful marker for preneoplastic hepatocytes.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1978

Transfer of viable putative preneoplastic hepatocytes to the livers of syngeneic host rats.

A new approach was developed by which freshly isolated, chemical carcinogen-altered hepatocytes with the positive marker gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma-GT) could be transferred from adult donor F344 rats to the livers of syngeneic, adult host rats. Selective proliferation of gamma-GT-positive hepatocytes was induced in host rat livers, such that large, macroscopic colonies of altered hepatocytes could be generated within 10 days of the cell transfer operation. Quantitation of the number of gamma-GT-positive hepatocyte colonies (foci) appearing per square centimeter of host liver section area on day 10 following cell transfer revealed that prior treatment of host rats with a low dose of 2-acetylaminofluorene was essential for the appearance of large numbers of foci. In addition, the appearance of foci on day 10 depended on the presence of intact, gamma-GT-positive hepatocytes in the infused (transferred) cell suspensions.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1978

Alterations in thermal stability of rat liver chromatin and DNA induced in vivo by dimethylnitrosamine and diethylnitrosamine.

A study was made of the effects of administration to rats of dimethylnitrosamine and diethylnitrosamine on the transition temperature (Tm) of sheared chromatin and DNA isolated from the liver. The analysis was made by thermal chromatography on hydroxylapatite with the use of DNA prelabeled with [3H]thymidine and following the elution pattern during the operation of a continuous temperature gradient. With a nonnecrogenic dose of dimethylnitrosamine (10 mg/kg), the alterations in chromatin were maximal at 24 hr and disappeared by 3 days. Greatest differences in elution profiles of chromatin after dimethylnitrosamine treatment were observed in the region above 80 degrees. Administration of the carcinogen caused a lowering of the "melting" curve in this region, the displacement from control position being proportional to the dose. The maximum dose (60 mg/kg) displaced the complete chromatin melting curve up to 5 degrees to the lower side. DNA isolated from this chromatin melted 3 degrees less than that from control rats. However, administration of lower doses of dimethylnitrosamine did not affect the melting profile of DNA. The administration of diethylnitrosamine caused a similar type of change. However, the modification was also seen at 50-60 degrees.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Rapid emergence of carcinogen-induced hyperplastic lesions in a new model for the sequential analysis of liver carcinogenesis.

Hyperplastic liver lesions which develop following administration of hepatocarcinogens have been implicated as probable precursors for the cancers which ultimately develop. Some, and possibly all, of these putative precursor lesions are resistant to the necrogenic and growth-inhibitory action of hepatocarcinogens and other hepatotoxins. An in vivo assay system based on this resistance phenomenon has been developed which encourages the rapid selective growth of carcinogen-altered hepatocytes, facilitating their early identification. The system consists of a) single carcinogenic dose of diethylnitrosamine (DEN), b) short-term dietary exposure to 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF) sufficient to suppress growth of virtually all normal hepatocytes, and c) partial hepatectomy (PH) to actuate rapid growth of DEN-altered hepatocytes not suppressed by 2-AAF. Following PH, the DEN-altered hepatocytes grow out as basophilic foci which are distributed randomly throughout the 2-AAF-suppressed parenchyma. Within 1 week they can be seen as tiny, discrete, translucent nodules on the capsular and cut surface of the remaining lobes. The lesions continue to proliferate and become histologically indistinguishable from typical carcinogen-induced hyperplastic liver nodules frequently described in the literature. These in turn appear to be precursor lesions for at least some hepatocellular carcinomas. Future experimentation based on this phenomenon of "selective resistance to cytotoxicity" should prove valuable in answering specific questions about the carcinogenic process in liver and possibly in other tissues.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1977

Comparison of the blood supply to diethylnitrosamine-induced hyperplastic nodules and hepatomas and to the surrounding liver.

Intravascular injection of radionuclide-labeled microspheres was used to compare the blood supply to diethylnitrosamine-induced hyperplastic liver nodules and hepatomas with the blood supply to the surrounding, histologically normal liver. Microspheres injected into the heart or portal vein lodged in the organs of control and diethylnitrosamine-treated rats providing a quantitative index of blood supply to the microvascular bed. The blood supply is expressed as percentage of cardiac output (arterial) or cpm (portal) per organ, lobe, g tissue, etc. The fraction of the cardiac output received by lung, kidneys, spleen, and liver was similar in control and carcinogen-treated animals. The arterial blood supply of 23 nodules and hepatomas was variable [1.17 +/- 0.22% (S.E.) cardiac output per g, fixed weight], but it was similar to the arterial supply to the surrounding tissue (1.12 +/- 0.21% cardiac output per g, fixed weight). In contrast the portal blood supply to 25 selected lesions wa 39 +/- 6% that of the surrounding liver tissue. There was no apparent relationship between blood supply and lesion size or histological appearance. While only 0.13 +/- 0.04% of the microspheres injected via the portal system were recovered in the lungs of control rats, approximately 100 times this number bypassed or escaped the liver containing nodules and hepatomas and lodged in the lungs. Such alterations in blood flow could contribute to biological diversification of hepatic lesions in successive stages of cancer evolution and could facilitate metastasis from the liver.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Differences in growth of transplants of liver, liver hyperplastic nodules, and hepatocellular carcinomas in the mammary fat pad.

Transplantation of fragments of normal rat liver autologously and isologously into the inguinal mammary fat pad permitted survival for up to 75% of grafts for 38 weeks, the longest interval studied. Similarly transplanted hepatocarcinomas grew rapidly and progressively in this site. Neither autologous or isologous transplants of liver hyperplastic nodules displayed obvious growth, although like normal liver, they also persisted for up to 38 weeks. Some persisting hyperplastic cells retained certain characteristic features, but others appeared to revert to a normal morphology. Thus, there is a stage in which hyperplastic cells do not possess the progressive growth ability of neoplastic cells and appear to be capable of reversion to a normal phenotype.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed1977

Newer insights into the pathogenesis of liver cancer.

A new hypothesis leading to a new model of liver carcinogenesis is described; it is based on the acquisition by carcinogen-altered hepatocytes during initiation of a new functional handle--resistance to the cytotoxicity of a carcinogen--and on the ability of such cells to proliferate in an environment that prevents proliferation of normal hepatocytes. The creation of such a differential environment now enables a quantitative analysis for initiation, the beginning synchronization of the putative premalignant hepatocytes for about 15 cell cycles, the study of the pattern of growth of such resistant cells to form nodules that have some resemblance to the organizational pattern of fetal liver, the analysis of the appearance of distinctive positive and negative markers for these cells, and the further investigation of the development of liver cancer from such cells. The remarkable similarity in overall pattern betweeen the development of cancer in the skin and in the liver with chemicals and the possible role of both somatic mutation and neodifferentiation in carcinogenesis are briefly discussed.

Aflatoxins↗
PubMed1976

Nature of early appearing, carcinogen-induced liver lesions to iron accumulation.

A technique for induction of iron accumulation in hepatocytes of rats was used to identify early carcinogen-induced lesions by their histochemical absence of iron. Foci of iron-free altered hepatocytes produced by the feeding of N-2-fluorenylacetamide (FAA) for 3 weeks were composed of cells that were replicating when surrounding iron-containing hepatocytes were not, and that responded to a mitotic stimulus when surrounding hepatocytes were inhibited or showed a delayed response. Thus these lesions represented focal hyperplastic overgrowths. The iron-free hyperplastic foci developed into hyperplastic areas that progressed with longer feeding of FAA to form hyperplastic nodules. The lack of iron was a sensitive and reliable marker for hyperplastic lesions, which also permitted their identification in the fresh state. Both early hyperplastic lesions and nodules were often resistant to the necrogenic effects of dimethylnitrosamine, as well as to the antireplicative effect of FAA. The selection of such cells resistant to the toxic effects of carcinogens may be important in the pathogenesis of liver neoplasia.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1976

Nonrandom nature of in vivo methylation of dimethylnitrosamine and the subsequent removal of methylated products from rat liver chromatin DNA.

This investigation was designed to study whether methylation of liver chromatin DNA by dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) and the subsequent in vivo removal of DNA-bound methylated products are random. Liver chromatin DNA was fractionated into nuclease-digestible and nondigestible material 4 hr following the administration of [3H]DMN (0.5 mg/250 muCi/100 g body weight). Digestion of such methylated liver chromatin with pancreatic DNase I or micrococcal nuclease and analysis of nuclease-digested acid-soluble products revealed a discrepancy between the radioactivity released (72%) and the nucleotides released (50%) as measured by the absorbance at 260 nm. This discrepancy disappeared, and the rate and extent of release of both the radioactivity and the absorbance at 260 nm were identical when the total purified DNA isolated from methylated chromatin was used as the substrate instead of chromatin DNA in the nuclease reaction. These results, together with the fact that guanine contents of the DNA of the two fractions of the chromatin isolated by nuclease digestion were identical, suggest that methylation of the nuclease-accessible region of hepatic chromatin DNA is relatively greater than that of the inaccessible region. The study of the removal of methylated products in the accessible region of the chromatin DNA further reveals that, of the methylated products present at 4 hr, 62% is lost by 3 days, 87% is lost by 1 week and 94% is lost by 2 weeks. However, loss from the nuclease-inaccessible region of chromatin DNA is only 27% by 3 days, 49% by 1 week, and 86% by 2 weeks, thereby suggesting that the removal of methylated products from this region of chromatin DNA is relatively slower compared with that from the nuclease-accessible region of chromatin-DNA. The results of this study thus indicated (a) an increased methylation and faster rate of removal of DMN-induced methylated products in nuclease-accessible regions of chromatin DNA and (b) decreased methylation and slower rate of removal from the nuclease-inaccessible regions of chromatin DNA. It is concluded that the distribution and removal of DMN-induced methylated products in liver chromatin DNA is nonrandom as measured by this technique.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

A relative deficiency of cytochrome P-450 and aryl hydrocarbon [benzo(a)pyrene] hydroxylase in hyperplastic nodules induced by 2-acetylaminofluorene in rat liver.

The concentrations of cytochrome P-450 and the activities of aryl hydrocarbon [benzo(a)pyrene] hydroxylase (AHH) and reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-cytochrome c reductase were measured in early (gray-white) and remodeled (brown) hyperplastic nodules induced in the livers of rats with 2-acetylaminofluorene and were compared to the values in control livers and in the liver surrounding the nodules. Cytochrome P-450 content of early (14 weeks) hyperplastic nodules is 30% of the activity of untreated control livers and 48% of the activity of the surrounding liver. AHH activity of the early nodules is 10% of the control activity and 33% of the activity in the surrounding nonnodular liver. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-cytochrome c reductase activity in the microsomes of early nodules is 76% of the control activity and 78% of the activity in the surrounding liver. In the late remodeled nodules, (22 and 25 weeks), the cytochrome P-450 content is 40% of that of controls and AHH activity is 15% of the control activity. In primary hepatomas induced by 2-acetylaminofluorene, cytochrome P-450 content is 21% of that of controls, AHH activity is 11% of the activity of controls, and reductase is 50% of the control activity. These results, indicating a relative nodule deficiency in some of the cellular components believed to be important in the activation of hepatocarcinogens and hepatotoxins, offer one possible explanation for the relative resistance to carcinogen cytotoxicity of hyperplastic liver nodules.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1976

The resistance of putative premalignant liver cell populations, hyperplastic nodules, to the acute cytotoxic effects of some hepatocarcinogens.

The hypothesis that liver carcinogenesis may have as an important facet the early selection of carcinogen-resistant cells was tested in animals in which putative premalignant hepatocyte populations, hyperplastic nodules, were induced by 2-acetylaminofluorene or by ethionine. Hyperplastic nodules were observed to be resistant to the acute necrogenic effects of 2 hepatotoxins, CCl4 and dimethylnitrosamine, under conditions in which liver cell necrosis occurred in the liver surrounding the nodules. In addition, although [methyl-3H]dimethylnitrosamine was taken up to an equal degree in nodules and normal liver, the interactions with DNA, RNA, and protein in hyperplastic nodules were found to be about 50% less than in control liver. Hyperplastic nodules showed a marked decrease in uptake of [9-14C]-2-acetylaminofluorene, a finding that could account for the large decrease in labeling of DNA, RNA, and protein by [9-14C]-2acetylaminofluorene observed in the nodules. The results are consistent with and support the hypothesis that new hepatocyte populations that appear prior to cancer, during liver carcinogenesis, have as an important biological property a resistance to the cytotoxic effect of hepatocarcinogens. The basis for this resistance might be a decrease in uptake and/or a reduction in the level of activation of carcinogens.

2-Acetylaminofluorene↗
PubMed1975

Alkaline lysis of mammalian cells for sedimentation analysis of nuclear DNA. Conformation of released DNA as monitored by physical, electron microscopic and enzymological techniques.

The degree of single strandedness of the DNA released from rat liver nuclei by various alkaline lysing solutions (including some with sodium dodecyl sulfate) was determined both before and after sedimentation in alkaline sucrose gradients employing electron microscopy, melting profiles, circular dichroism measurements, and digestibility by S1 nuclease. Regardless of the technique employed, the results obtained following alkaline sucrose gradient centrifugation of the DNA are consistent. The DNA was completely single stranded as judged by electron microscopy, circular dichroism spectra, and digestibility by S1 nuclease, an enzyme that specifically hydrolyzes single-stranded DNA. This was not true if the DNA was analyzed following alkaline lysis of the nuclei but before centrifugation. Under conditions which gave a complete transition to the single-stranded state, as judged by melting profiles and circular dichroism spectra, only 10-15% of the DNA was hydrolyzed by S1 nuclease. An increase in the susceptibility of the released DNA to S1 nuclease was observed with increases in the pH of the lysing solution. In order to release DNA which was single stranded as judged by both physical and enzymological techniques, the rat liver nuclei were lysed for 30 min with a 0.3 M NaOH lysing solution containing 0.5% dodecyl sulfate, 0.3 M NaCl and 0.03 M EDTA.

Animals↗