0000000001037347
AUTHOR
G Weisse
Expression of L- and M2-pyruvate kinases in proliferating oval cells and cholangiocellular lesions developing in the livers of rats fed a methyl-deficient diet
Male outbred Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a choline-deficient diet containing 0.1% w/w DL-ethionine (CDE) for up to 22 weeks. The expression of the pyruvate kinase isoenzymes L (L-PK) and M2 (M2-PK) was immunohistochemically analyzed in liver slices from rats killed 4, 10, 14 and 22 weeks after starting the treatment. M2-PK was detected in bile duct epithelial cells of untreated rats and in proliferating oval cells, cholangiofibroses and cholangiofibromas of CDE-fed animals. Thus, M2-PK can be viewed as a positive marker of the bile duct epithelial/oval cell compartment. L-PK, a parenchymal cell-specific protein in untreated rat liver, was not present in proliferating oval cells, but was co…
Expression of pyruvate kinase M2 in preneoplastic hepatic foci of N-nitrosomorpholine-treated rats.
The expression of the pyruvate kinase (PK) isoenzymes L and M2 was analysed in the livers of rats treated with the hepatocarcinogenic agent N-nitrosomorpholine (NNM) in the drinking water. In control animals L-PK expression was restricted to liver parenchymal cells, whereas M2-PK was detected in bile duct epithelial, blood vessel wall, endothelial and Kupffer cells. In rats treated with NNM proliferating oval cells were consistently L-PK negative and M2-PK positive, while the ductal cells of cholangiofibroses were clearly L-PK positive and coexpressed M2-PK. However, no morphological differentiation of ductal cells into hepatocyte-like cells was observed. In the clear and acidophilic cell f…