Change in transferrin receptor distribution in regenerating rat liver.

Partial hepatectomy results in an increase in the ability of the liver cells to bind 125I-labeled transferrin to surface receptors. Scatchard analysis of the binding of transferrin in regenerating rat liver indicates that this increase was due to an increase in the number of transferrin receptors on the cell surface. When we measured total cellular transferrin receptor number, we found that control and regenerating livers had identical amounts of receptor number. The increase in the surface receptor number is apparently due to the translocation of intracellular transferrin receptor to the cell surface.