Insulin as a potent, specific growth factor in a rat hepatoma cell line.

A line or rat hepatoma cells in culture which, in response to serum starvation, become arrested in the early G1 phase of growth, can be stimulated by insulin alone to enter the cell cycle and traverse S phase. A half-maximum response is observed at 30 to 70 picomolar concentrations and the maximum response is essentially identical to that found with optimum serum concentrations.