Profiles of carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes in human hepatocellular carcinomas and preneoplastic livers.

Activities of key carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes in biopsied human tissues of hepatocellular carcinoma and related conditions were determined by established methods. Among the enzymes analyzed, fetal-type liver enzymes (low-Km hexokinase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate kinase-M2) showed increased activities, and adult-type liver enzymes [glucose 6-phosphatase, fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase, high-Km hexokinase (or glucokinase), and pyruvate kinase-L] showed decreased activities, resulting in undifferentiated enzyme patterns not only in fetal livers and hepatocellular carcinomas but also in livers of acute and chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis with or without tumors. Hepatocellular carcinomas showed a general tendency of having greater enzyme deviations than hepatitic and cirrhotic livers. The extent of the enzyme deviation in hepatocellular carcinomas varied considerably from one enzyme to another for each tumor tissue as compared with that in the benign liver diseases. Thus, the phenotypic heterogeneity was important for discriminating between the neoplastic and inflammatory changes in differentiation markers. The enzyme patterns of tumors and their corresponding host cirrhotic livers were unrelated, suggesting that the cirrhotic liver has a significance as preneoplastic state only in terms of having a high incidence of evolving hepatocellular carcinoma.