Enzymatic detection of precursor cell populations of preneoplastic foci positive for γ-glutamyltranspeptidase in rat liver

✍ Scribed by Kimihiko Satoh; Gen Takahashi; Tomisato Miura; Makoto Hayakari; Ichiro Hatayama

• Book ID: 102271597
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 407 KB
• Volume: 115
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.20979

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

An improved staining method for γ‐glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) was developed using Vibratome‐prepared microslices. Microscopic precursor cell populations of preneoplastic foci positive for the marker enzyme were detectable sequentially in rat liver by tracing back from 5 to 1 week after carcinogen injection in a hepatocarcinogenesis model. Mirror‐image comparisons of serial sections stained for GGT activity and immunocytochemically stained for GST‐P (glutathione S‐transferase P‐form) revealed that GGT expression was confined within GST‐P^+^ cell populations (GST‐P^+^ minifoci), which are induced in the periportal area (zone 1) of the liver. GGT expression level differed from one minifocus to another, and the larger the GST‐P^+^ focus, the stronger was the GGT expression in it, indicating that GST‐P^+^/GGT^−^ phenotypes are convertible into proliferating GST‐P^+^/GGT^+^ ones. Our results suggest that there are at least 2 closely related precursors, GST‐P^+^/GGT^−^ and GST‐P^+^/GGT^+^ phenotypes, of preneoplastic foci in rat chemical hepatocarcinogenesis. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.