[Activity of the key glycolysis and respiration enzymes in the rat liver in chemical carcinogenesis].

Activities of hexokinase, glucokinase, cytochrome oxidase as well as amount of mitochondrial protein and subcellular distribution of hexokinase were studied in rat liver tissue after administration of acetyl aminofluorene and diethyl nitrosamine. Activity of the enzymes was altered in the same direction both in the primary induced hepatomas and in transplantable tumors of liver tissue. Glucokinase was not found but the fraction of hexokinase bound to mitochondrial membranes was observed in all the primary hepatomas studied; in this property the tumors resembled the embryonal liver tissue, various tissues of mature animals and transplantable hepatomas. This pattern of distribution of the enzymes reflects biochemical and functional disdifferentiation of the hepatomas. Properties of the bound hexokinase from the hepatoma were similar to those of the enzyme from embryonal liver tissue and, hence, they were distinct as compared with the enzymatic properties of hexokinase in the transplantable hepatomas.