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

An improved staining method for gamma-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.