Establishment of epithelial cell lines from adult mouse regenerating liver.

A simple technique for developing epithelial cell lines from regenerating mouse liver has been described. Twenty-one epithelial cell lines have been developed and can be divided into four groups according to their morphology. All these near diploid cell lines have the capacity to metabolize diverse classes of chemical carcinogens (3-methylcholanthrene, 2-acetylaminofluorene, dimethylnitrosamine and aflatoxin B1) to cytotoxic metabolites. It is not yet possible to determine which ones of these cell lines originated from hepatocytes. Studies are in progress to further characterize and to use these cell lines as lethally irradiated feeder layers for cell-mediated activation of various classes of chemical carcinogens and mutagens with C3H/10T1/2 mouse embryo fibroblasts as indicator cells.