Establishment of a clonal strain of hepatoma cells derived from Morris hepatoma 8999.

A new line of tissue culture cells derived from a slow-growing hepatoma 8999 was established and named 8999C. The isolation method, growth pattern, and morphology of the 8999C cells are described. Several hepatic enzyme activities in 8999C cells were compared to those in the original hepatoma 8999. The ornithine aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.13), tyrosine aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.5), and arginase (EC 3.5.3.1) activities in the 8999C cells were one-third, one-tenth, and one-hundredth of those of the respective activities in the original hepatoma 8999, and mitochondrial serine protease, which has much higher activity in hepatoma 8999 than in normal liver cells, was not detected in 8999C cells. Tyrosine aminotransferase in 8999C cells was induced by dexamethasone but not by N6,O2'-dibutyryladenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate or insulin. Unlike in hepatoma 8999, glucocorticoid did not induce arginase in 8999C cells.