Initiation by bleomycin of hepatocellular foci in the rat.

The antitumor antibiotic, bleomycin, was tested for activity as an initiator of hepatocellular foci and neoplasms in rats. The compound was administered in a single dose via the portal vein 4 h after the proliferative stimulus of a two-thirds partial hepatectomy. Rats were subsequently fed diet containing phenobarbital for up to 41 weeks to promote the development of initiated hepatocytes. Bleomycin-treated livers displayed significantly increased frequencies of basophilic hepatocellular foci and hepatocellular foci which retain glycogen during fasting. Foci that express glutathione-S-transferase (placental form) were not initiated by bleomycin. Hepatocellular neoplasms were infrequently seen in bleomycin-treated livers (5% incidence). The results suggest that oxygen radical-mediated DNA damage may initiate, within populations of proliferating hepatocytes, new lineages of altered hepatocytes that form foci but have low probability of progressing to neoplasms during promotion with phenobarbital.