Cytochemical localization and biochemical analysis of the enzyme markers in human hepatoma cell lines.

Three enzyme makers, glucose-6-phosphatase, ATPase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, have been used in studying carcinogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma. They have been investigated in animal models and human hepatocellular carcinoma in vivo and in vitro. But the inconsistent levels of these three enzymes associated with this type of carcinoma raised the possibility that the carcinoma cells might have derived from the cells originating from different stages of differentiation. To evaluate this possibility, three human cell lines, Hep G2, Hep 3B, and HA 22T, all thought to be arrested in different stages of differentiation based on their biochemical and morphological characteristics, were used as models. The three enzyme markers glucose-6-phosphatase, ATPase and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase were examined cytochemically and biochemically. Our results showed that there was no correlation between the ATPase levels and the stages of the cell line's differentiation. But both glucose-6-phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase were higher in cells that were more differentiated.