In vivo initiated rat liver carcinogenesis studied in vitro; formation of alcoholic hyaline-type bodies.

Epithelial liver cells isolated from rats after oral diethylnitrosamine administration were established in culture. When propagated in vitro for 2--3 months, over half the cells contained acentric nuclei and large juxtanuclear inclusions resembling the hyaline deposits (Mallory bodies) in cirrhotic livers of alcoholics. The morphological changes and disarrayed filaments in these bodies were retained on serial passages for many months. Cells inoculated into nude mice or newborn rats produced carcinomas from which cells with these abnormalities were reestablished in continuous culture.