Abstract
WHEN tumour tissue is implanted subcutaneously into an animal the enzymatic composition of the host liver changes so as to resemble that of well differentiated hepatomas1–4. When a tumour is implanted into a suckling rat (14–20 d old) the appearance of liver enzymes that occurs normally at that stage of development is severely inhibited4 by as yet unknown mechanisms. We have investigated whether possible endocrine modification of the host by the implanted tumour is an obligatory step in the enzymatic modification of the host liver. We used cultured foetal liver, a system in which several enzymes have been reported to arise spontaneously5–7. Our results show that tumours can exert a direct effect on enzyme maturation of foetal liver in organ culture that is quantitatively comparable with the effect observed in vivo; they do not rule out a possible glandular involvement of the tumour-bearing host in vivo.
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FARRON, F., LIGHTHOLDER, J. Interaction of Walker 256 mammary carcinoma and foetal rat liver in organ culture inhibits enzyme maturation. Nature 260, 628–630 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/260628a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/260628a0
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