Primary culture of adult rat liver cells. I. Preparation of isolated cells from trypsin-perfused liver of adult rat.

Isolated hepatic cells from adult rats were prepared by perfusing the livers with trypsin. The highest yield of viable cells was obtained by perfusing the liver with 0.1% trypsin, pH 7.0, at 37 degrees C for 30 min. Following this treatment about 70% of cells excluded trypan blue. The isolated cells contained many binucleate cells. Between 60 and 70% of DNA present originally in the liver was recovered from the isolated hepatic cells, which had higher glucose 6-phosphatase activity than the liver. Thus the resulting cell population seems to be rich in hepatocytes. The isolated hepatic cells, however, lost some of their cellular proteins such as alanine and tyrosine amino-transferases. It was suggested that the membranes of isolated hepatic cells might be damaged by both enzymatic digestion and mechanical destruction.