Characterization of hepatocytes from carcinogen-treated rats by two-parametric flow cytometry

Hepatocytes in the adult rat are normally mostly tetraploid, but sequential carcinogen treatment (diethylnitrosamine/2-acetylaminofluorene) induces the development of a predominantly diploid hepatocyte population. By two-parametric flow cytometry (simultaneous measurement of DNA and protein content within the same cell) it could be shown that diploid hepatocytes from carcinogen-treated rats had only half the size (protein content) of the tetraploid cells from the same liver, but the same size as diploid hepatocytes from normal rats.