[Effect of N-nitrosodiethylamine on the liver cells of chick embryos in primary culture].

The morphology and proliferative activity of liver cells from chick embryos were studied. In vitro, the cells were treated with N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) in doses of 100 and 75 mg/ml of culture medium for a 10-day period. The primary culture from liver cells of 9-day chick embryos was prepared on the highly permeable celloidine membrane. In early periods of cultivation there were degenerative signs, mainly in the parenchymal cells, which shows a cytotoxic effect of NDEA. Proliferation of a small population of light epithelioid cells was observed towards the end of the experiment. There were also some atypical and pathological mitoses in the fibroblasts. The obtained results show that a neoplastic transformation of the chick embryonal liver cells occurs under in vitro conditions.