Inhibiting effect of plasma from normal and tumour bearing mice on the mitotic rate of regenerating liver

Abstract

Plasma from normal mice and from mice bearing the ES2 transplatable malignant tumour was injected intraperitoneally at a dose of 0.01 ml/g body weight in partially hepatectomized mice. Control animals were injected with a solution of sodium citrate in saline. The recipients were killed at the first (14:00 hours/48 h). These times are the time of day and the number of h after partial hepatectomy and second (14:00 hours/72 h) peak times after partial hepatectomy. The number of colchicine metaphases per 1000 nuclei was determined for hepatocytes and litoral cells. A different effect was obtained with plasma from tumour-bearing compared with normal mice. Plasma from both sources when injected 26 h after partial hepatectomy (16:00 hours/26 h) inhibited the mitotic activity of hepatocytes at the next peak of regenerative activity (14:00 hours/48 h). The plasma from tumour-bearing mice also inhibited the peak on the following day (14:00 hours/72 h), whereas plasma from normal mice had no inhibitory effect and, indeed, a compensatory wave was observed at this time. Furthermore, plasma from tumour-bearing mice also showed an inhibitory effect at the first peak (14:00 hours/48 h) when injected at the time of partial hepatectomy (14:00 hours/00 h) or at 22 h before partial hepatectomy (16:00 hours/ −22 h) whereas the injection of plasma from normal mice at these times had no inhibitory effect. In the litoral cells the injection of plasma from tumour-bearing mice made 22 h before hepatectomy (16:00 hours/ - 22 h) led to a stimulation of mitotic activity which was controlled at 14:00 hours/48 h. Injection made at the time of partial hepatectomy (14:00 hours/00 h) caused inhibition at 14:00 hours/48 h and injection at 26 h after partial hepatectomy (16:00 hours/26 h) had no effect. The three injections of normal plasma did not modify the mitotic activity of litoral cells at either 14:00 hours/48 h or at 14:00 hours/72 h.