Maeda S, Kimura H, Koga N, Lin K H, Saito T
Department of Chemistry, Government Industrial Research Institute, Nagoya, Japan.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 1993 Aug 31;195(1):270-5. doi: 10.1006/bbrc.1993.2040.
We show here that the internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, which is a biochemical hallmark of apoptosis, was induced in a cell density-dependent manner in primary culture of adult rat hepatocytes. This DNA fragmentation could be suppressed by a gene expression inhibitor, indicating the active nature of this process. Moreover, the viability changes in high and low cell density cultures showed a tendency corresponding with the incidence of the DNA fragmentation in them. These results suggest that in hepatocytes there may be a cell density-dependent apoptosis mechanism. In this report, we also show that heparin could suppress this DNA fragmentation with high specificity, and the cell death to some extent.
