Lack of correlated expression between the glutathione S-transferase P-form and the oncogene products c-Jun and c-Fos in rat tissues and preneoplastic hepatic foci.

Since the expression of glutathione S-transferase P-form (GST-P) has been suggested from in vitro studies to be partly regulated by the oncogene product, c-Jun and c-Fos, their distributions were compared in normal rat tissues and preneoplastic hepatic lesions induced by the Solt-Farber protocol. Immunohistochemically demonstrated GST-P protein was positively correlated with expression of both c-Jun and c-Fos in the epidermis of the skin and the smooth muscle of adult lung and with either c-Jun or c-Fos respectively in the bile ducts and bronchial epithelium. However, GST-P expression was also observed in proximal and distal straight segments of the kidney and other tissues negative for c-Jun and c-Fos and both c-Jun and c-Fos were present in the renal proximal and distal convoluted tubules, where GST-P was lacking. Thus, the localization of GST-P was in some cases clearly separable from those of c-Jun or c-Fos. GST-P was found to be focally expressed from an early stage of hepatocarcinogenesis, when c-Jun was not detectable. At later stages, this oncogene product was stained in 35.7% of GST-P-positive foci, with a clear relation to the degree of GST-P staining. Since GST-P is not always accompanied by appreciable c-Jun or c-Fos, these oncogene products are apparently not prerequisites for its expression. However, c-Jun may be partly responsible for maintaining high levels of GST-P in hepatic foci at later stages of hepatocarcinogenesis.