Studies on the intercellular adhesion of rat and chicken hepatocytes. Tissue-specific adhesion in mixtures of hepatocytes and heart myocytes.

We previously reported that chicken and rat hepatocytes isolated from young adult animals displayed adhesive specificity in that they adhered preferentially to the homologous cell type. However, since we had used cells from two widely divergent species, it was not clear whether the cells were capable of distinguishing their own cell type from cells of other tissues of the same animal. The present experiments were aimed at determining whether, given the choice of adhering to cells obtained from another tissue from the same animal, cells still preferentially adhered to their own cell type, i.e. whether they showed tissue-specific adhesion. An improved collagenase perfusion procedure was developed for preparing single, viable heart myocytes. Cell adhesion experiments were then performed with hepatocytes and myocytes obtained from a single rat or chicken. Marked tissue-specific adhesion was observed under all conditions tested, which included varying the ratio of each cell type (hepatocytes or myocytes), stationary or gyratory conditions, the presence or absence of serum and certain metal ions, etc. The demonstration of tissue-specific adhesion among hepatocytes and myocytes isolated from the same animal is consistent with the idea that the two cell types contain different cell surface components required for cell-cell recognition. Furthermore, that the hepatocytes (and myocytes) can show tissue-specific adhesion validates the use of cells from adult animals for biochemical studies on intercellular adhesion.