Levels of oncogene transcripts in hepatomas of different growth rates and in liver in response to diets which cause a nucleotide imbalance.

The relationship between levels of gene transcripts and tumor growth was studied in rat hepatomas showing a wide spectrum of growth rates. The level of c-myc and actin gene transcripts were generally increased in the hepatomas but were independent of the growth rate of the tumors. Oncogene expression was studied in the livers of rats on diets which cause a nucleotide imbalance in the liver and which have been reported to be promotional for hepatocarcinogenesis. The levels of c-myc transcripts were elevated three-fold with an arginine-deficient diet but were little changed with a high-orotate diet. The data suggested that levels of c-myc transcripts in rat liver cannot be related in a uniform manner to nucleotide imbalance, tumor promotion or hepatoma growth.