Activation of a ribosomal S6 protein kinase in rapidly emerging diethylnitrosamine-induced gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase-positive hyperplastic liver lesions of the rat.

The gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT)-positive hyperplastic liver lesions which developed in the Fisher 344 rat 7 and 60 days following a single carcinogenic dose of diethylnitrosamine (DENA, 200 mg/kg body weight), short-term dietary exposure to 0.02% 2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) to suppress the growth of normal hepatocytes, and partial hepatectomy to actuate rapid growth of DENA altered hepatocytes not suppressed by AFF, showed an increased activity of a kinase which specifically phosphorylates the ribosomal S6 protein in vitro. Sham-operated animals showed, on the contrary, no GGT-positive cells and low S6 kinase activity, under the same conditions. After partial hepatectomy, activation of S6 kinase and elevated levels of phosphorylated S6 protein in vitro were detected in the early phases of "normal" hepatocyte proliferation, during liver regeneration, in DENA-treated, GGT-negative preparations, when the "selection" agent AAF was omitted from the diet. The observed activation of S6 kinase in GGT-positive hepatocytes and/or liver nodules could represent an early manifestation of the enhanced proliferation of altered hepatocytes during tumor induction and/or promotion under these conditions.