Glycosaminoglycan synthesis by liver parenchymal cell clones in culture and its change with transformation.

Albumin-producing rat liver parenchymal cell clones (BB and BC) and their subclones in the confluent culture synthesized heparan sulfate as the major component and dermatan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronic acid as the minor ones. Their relative contents were similar to those present in the rat liver. Analyses of glycosaminoglycans synthesized by subclone cells (BB1S) at various cell densities, cell growth phases and passage levels have shown that relative content of heparan sulfate remained constant, suggesting that the epithelial cell possesses a stable heparan sulfate-producing capacity. On the other hand, the level of hyaluronic acid production was high at low cell density, though it remained constant during cell proliferation. Chemically transformed rat liver parenchymal cells (M) produced relatively higher amount of chondroitin sulfate than non-transformed cells did, as observed with 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide-transformed 3T3 cells, compared to 3T3 714 cells. The results obtained on this study strongly suggest that the liver parenchymal cells synthesize a major part of the glycosaminoglycans of the liver and chondroitin sulfate production is closely related to cellular proliferations.