Undifferentiated patterns of key glycolytic and gluconeogenic enzymes in epithelial cell lines derived from rat liver

Established epithelial cell lines derived from livers of 7-day (B, B-R, B-3-4-7, J-C-1, J-C-13, J-5-2-1, E-C-4 and E-C-7) and adult (AL-2, AL-3, AL-4, AL-5 and AL-6) rats were analyzed for hexokinase (HK), pyruvate kinase (PK), glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD), glucose 6-phosphatase (G6Pase) and fructose 1,6-diphosphatase (FDPase). None of the cell lines showed appreciable activities of adult type liver enzymes (HK Type IVs (glucokinase), PK Type L, G6Pase and FDPase). On the contrary, the activities of fetal type liver enzymes (HK Types I and II, PK Type M2 and G6PD) increased markedly as compared with dispersed cells or tissues of adult liver. 6PGD gave minimum changes in activity, and the 6PGD/G6PD ratio decreased consistently. HK Type III was found only in J-C-13, AL-5 and AL-6, while HK Type IVf (high Km) was present in all the cell lines examined. Possible explanations for the undifferentiated patterns of carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes in the established cell lines, which have several evidence of hepatocyte origin, are presented.