Adhesive specificity of juvenile rat and chicken liver cells and membranes.

Liver cells, isolated from either juvenile rats or chickens by a collagenase perfusion technique, reaggregated when maintained in suspension. The cells exhibited marked adhesive specificity; when suspensions contained both cell types, the aggregates consisted primarily of either rat or chicken cells. Adhesive specificity was also observed with plasma membrane fractions isolated from rat liver homogenates, and with comparable fractions from chicken liver. These membranes stimulated aggregation of the homologous but not the heterologous cell type. Other membrane fractions had little or no effect on the aggregation of the homologous cell type. These and other properties of the liver cell and membrane preparations suggest that biochemical studies on cell-cell recognition and adhesion can most effectively be conducted with cells from juvenile and adult animals.