Cultured rat hepatocytes adapt their cellular glycolytic activity and adenylate energy status to tissue oxygen tension: influences of extracellular matrix components, insulin and glucagon.

The influence of extracellular matrix components, insulin, and glucagon on the cellular response to periportal- or pericentral-equivalent tissue oxygen tension was investigated in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes cultured at 13% O2 or 4% O2 in Teflon membrane dishes. With extended culture time, significant increases in lactate release and cellular lactate content were observed in cultures at 4% O2 compared with 13% O2. This shift toward glycolysis was detectable when hepatocytes were cultured on dishes coated with rat liver crude membrane fraction (CMF/COL) but not in collagen type I-coated dishes. This indicates that extracellular matrix components are involved in the process of adaptation. ATP and total adenylate content in cells cultured at 4% O2 were up to 40% lower than in cells cultured at 13% O2. However, the adenylate energy charge was not affected, suggesting that an adequate energy supply was maintained also in hepatocytes cultured at pericentral-equivalent oxygen tension. This adaptation was reversible. When hepatocytes were transferred either from 4% to 13% O2 or from 13% to 4% O2, they adapted the corresponding metabolic profile to the new oxygen tension within 2 days. This demonstrates that hepatocytes are not fully unidirectionally programmed. The modulation of the glycolytic activity by insulin and glucagon was effective in cultures at pericentral-equivalent oxygen tension (4% O2) only. Insulin (0.1-100 nM) shifted cellular metabolism toward the glycolytic pathway and glucagon (1-100 nM) counteracted the effect of insulin in a dose-dependent manner. Clearly, oxygen tension is the principal regulator in the hepatic glycolytic activity, whereas the hormones (insulin and glucagon) act as secondary modulators.