[Highly permeable contacts and the electrical characteristics of normal liver and hepatoma tissue. I. The highly permeable contacts in induced mouse hepatomas].

With the aid of intracellular microelectrodes some electrical characteristics of mouse liver were studied in early and late stages of chemical carcinogenesis. In early stages of carcinogenesis as well as in induced hepatomas, the membrane potentials of the cells, the input resistance of cell system and the electrotonic potential distribution in tissue did not differ from the corresponding values in normal liver. It is concluded that at all the stages of carcinogenesis electrical coupling in liver remains unaltered. It is proposed that high-permeable intercellular junctions may play a significant non-specific role in tissue malignization process.