Selective growth of epithelial-like clear cells from adult rat liver by short-term exposure to glucocorticoids in primary culture

Isolated liver cells, which were prepared from adult rats by a trypsin-liver-perfusion technique, were treated with dexamethasone or hydrocortisone at a concentration of 7.7 X 10(-6) M for 8 days in primary culture. The treated cultures displayed homogeneous population consisting of epithelial-like clear cells, while the untreated cultures displayed mixed population consisting of epithelial-like clear cells and fibroblast-like cells. The epithelial-like clear cells, which proliferated in the cultures treated with glucocorticoids for 8 days in primary culture, did not show any morphological changes following cultivation in glucocorticoid-free medium. After continuous glucocorticoid-treatment for more than 1 month, the treated cultures showed relatively low cell densities at confluence. The surface area of individual epithelial-like clear cells in the cultures treated with glucocorticoids for long periods of time was evidently greater than that in the cultures treated for only 8 days. The epithelial-like clear cells had glucose 6-phosphatase and tyrosine aminotransferase activities even though the levels of these enzyme-activities were very low compared with those in rat liver homogenates.