Enzyme histochemical phenotypes in primary hepatocellular carcinomas.

A marked heterogeneity of enzyme histochemical phenotypes was demonstrated in 48 primary hepatocellular carcinomas induced by feeding 2-acetylaminofluorene to rats. All eight possible combinations of three abnormal traits, gain of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase activity, loss of adenosine-5'-triphosphatase activity, and loss of glucose-6-phosphatase activity, were represented among the hepatocellular carcinomas. The four combinations in which two or three traits occurred together were seen in 85% of the carcinomas, while those categories with a normal phenotype or containing only single marker changes contained the few remaining neoplasms. As expected, the carcinomas all showed greatly increased and variable [3H]thymidine labeling indices; however, neither the rates of cell replication or the degrees of differentiation of the carcinomas appeared to correlate in any meaningful way with the patterns of phenotypic diversity. The distribution of histochemical phenotypes in the carcinomas differs greatly from that reported for enzyme-altered hyperplastic islands induced by carcinogens, but the significance of the difference is not apparent at the present time.