Characteristics and aldehyde dehydrogenase activity of four rat hepatoma cell lines produced by diethylnitrosamine-phenobarbital treatment.

Recent studies in our laboratory have shown that five established rat hepatoma cell lines provide a wide spectrum of tumor-associated aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity representative of the range of activities of this enzyme seen in primary rat hepatocellular carcinomas. Four newly established rat hepatoma cell lines, RLT-2M, RLT-3C, RLT-9F, and RLT-5G, were derived from a primary hepatocellular carcinoma. The primary tumor was induced by a single injection of diethylnitrosamine (15 microM/g body weight) to a 1-d-old female S-D rat followed at weaning by chronic phenobarbital treatment. RLT-2M was established from outgrowths of minced tumor pieces. RLT-3C, RLT-9F, and RLT-5G were cloned from RLT-2M by the serial endpoint dilution. All four lines have been maintained in culture for over 100 passages. The ALDH phenotype in both the primary tumor and the four new cell lines was determined by total activity assay, gel electrophoresis, and histochemistry. By total activity assay, the primary tumor did not possess significant tumor-ALDH activity. In contrast, the four new cell lines expressed tumor-ALDH activity. However, they differed in their basal ALDH activities and in ALDH inducibility by 3-methylcholanthrene, benzo(a)pyrene, and phenobarbital. Additionally, significant decreases in tumor-ALDH activity occurred when cells from each line were passaged in vivo. The four lines have been characterized by light and electron microscopic morphology, tumorigenicity, chromosome number, doubling time, and colony formation efficiency in soft agar.