Enzyme patterns in a group of transplantable mouse hepatomas of different growth rates.

A series of transplantable hepatomas which arose spontaneously in mice or in mice treated with goldthioglucose, urethan, or 3-methylcholanthrene has been tested for the extent of deviation of enzyme activity from that of normal liver. The growth rates of these hepatomas varied from 2 1 to 211 days. Deoxythymidine kinase, uridine kinase, carbamylphosphate synthetase , aspartate transcarbamylase, ornithine transcarbamylase, orotidylic acid pyrophosphorylase and decarboxylase, uracil reductase, histidase, tyrosine a-ketoglutarate transaminase , threonine-serine dehydrase , and tryptophan pyrrolase activities were examined in control liver and in the hepatomas. Deoxythymidine kinase and aspartate transcarbamylase activities correlated to some extent with the growth rate of these hepatomas. Threonine-serine dehydrase, histidase, and carbamylphosphate synthetase activities were almost undetectable in all the hepatomas, while uracil reductase was present in detectable amounts in only two of the hepatomas.