EFFECTS OF LEUKOCYTIC AND SERUM FACTORS ON FIBRINOGEN BIOSYNTHESIS IN CULTURED HEPATOCYTES

Primary monolayer cultures of fetal rat liver cells have been used to determine whether factors derived from sera and/or leucocytes from traumatized animals can act directly on hepatocytes to cause an increased synthesis of fibrinogen, an acute-phase reactant. The data show that fibrinogen synthesis increases in a dose-response relationship by the addition of leucocytic supernatant preparations from cells of rabbits that had previously been subjected to a peritoneal injection of sterile glycogen. The response of the hepatocytes to leucocytic factor is independent of the presence of fetal bovine serum. In other experiments, fibrinogen synthesis was also significantly stimulated over controls when hepatocytes were incubated in medium supplemented with dialyzed sera from either turpentine-stimulated or sham-operated rats. These findings lend support to the notion that there is a non-dialyzable factor(s) in the sera of traumatized animals that interacts with hepatocytes to elicit the acute-phase response. © 1978.