The stimulation by epidermal growth factor (urogastrone) of the growth of neonatal rat hepatocytes in primary tissue culture and its modulation by serum and associated pancreatic hormones.

Epidermal growth factor (EGF) added in a single dose (between 10(-16) and 1.7 X 10(-9)M) to neonatal rat hepatocytes in primary culture with subsequent incubation for 12 and 24 hours in Eagle's MEM fortified with 10% (v/v) FBS stimulated their entry into S and M phases, as shown by (3H)thymidine labeling and autoradiography and by a 4-hour exposure to colchicine (0.1 mM).

Studies on the persistence of differentiated functions in rat hepatocytes set into primary tissue culture. II. Production of specific exportable proteins and the effect of purine cyclic nucleotides: an immunofluorescent study.

Immunofluorescent studies showed that even after 15 days in vitro primary neonatal rat hepatocytes contained in their cytoplasm detectable amounts of different adult rat serum proteins, including fibrinogen and proalbumin. Estimation of the intensity of specific fluorescence revealed that in untreated cultures the hepatocytic content of the various exportable antigens progressively diminished between the 5th and 15th day in vitro. Treatment with cAMP (10(-5) M daily) alone increased in hepatocytic cytoplasm, with respect to parallel controls, the content of total exportable proteins and of proalbumin.

Neonatal rat hepatocytes in primary tissue culture free from density-dependent regulation of growth.

Studies employing [3H]thymidine and radioautography as well as colchicine and Feulgen staining of DNA showed that up to 19-fold increases in the degree of cell crowding in vitro, i.e. from 1.