Synthesis of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and cell proliferation in regenerating livers of NMRI mice after partial hepatectomy. An immunohistochemical and autoradiographic study with 3H-thymidine.

To get more information concerning the relation between cell proliferation and the synthesis of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), liver regeneration and AFP production was followed simultaneously in short intervals in NMRI mice after two-thirds hepatectomy using autoradiographic and immunohistochemical methods. The results indicate that AFP synthesis is not linked closely to cell proliferation in the sense that each proliferating hepatocyte synthesizes AFP during a definite phase of the cell cycle. However, AFP production, as measured by the index of anti-AFP positive hepatocytes, occurs in a very small population of parenchymal cells when the bulk of the hepatocytes has just passed the S-phase and is considered to be in the G2-, M or early G1-phase of the cell cycle when the cells are still in an undifferentiate state.