This Article Order Full text via Infotrieve Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dunsford, H. A. Articles by Sell, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Dunsford, H. A. Articles by Sell, S.

American Journal of Pathology, Vol 118, 218-224, Copyright © 1985 by American Society for Investigative Pathology

REGULAR ARTICLES

Connection of ductlike structures induced by a chemical hepatocarcinogen to portal bile ducts in the rat liver detected by injection of bile ducts with a pigmented barium gelatin medium

HA Dunsford, R Maset, J Salman and S Sell

Newly found metaplastic ductlike structures that form in the liver of rats exposed to carcinogens are connected to preexisting bile ducts. Male Fischer rats fed a diet of N-2-acetylaminofluorene in a choline- deficient diet (CDAAF) develop a massive proliferation of oval cells which appear to differentiate into bile-ductlike structures. However, unlike normal or proliferating bile ducts, these ductlike structures contain alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and albumin, which are markers for proliferating hepatocytes and some hepatocellular carcinomas. Bile duct injections with a green pigmented barium gelatin medium filled the lumens of the ductlike structures and typical ductlike structures induced by the CDAAF diet, as well as the proliferating bile ducts induced by the noncarcinogenic alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT), and the ducts in the normal controls. AFP was present in the ductlike structures in the rats fed AAF, but not in the bile ducts of animals fed ANIT. These studies suggest that most, if not all, of the ductlike structures produced during chemical hepatocarcinogenesis are derived from bile ducts, yet have the capacity to produce AFP and albumin.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Paku, J. Schnur, P. Nagy, and S. S. Thorgeirsson Origin and Structural Evolution of the Early Proliferating Oval Cells in Rat Liver Am. J. Pathol., April 1, 2001; 158(4): 1313 - 1323. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Sell Electron Microscopic Identification of Putative Liver Stem Cells and Intermediate Hepatocytes following Periportal Necrosis Induced in Rats by Allyl Alcohol Stem Cells, September 1, 1997; 15(5): 378 - 385. [Abstract] [Full Text]