Glucocorticoid responsiveness of hepatoma cell hybrids.

The dominance or recessiveness of glucocorticoid responsiveness and albumin production of different hepatoma cell lines were investigated using somatic cell hybrids. The majority of the intraspecific, intraorgan hybrids between glucocorticoid sensitive, tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) non-inducible, albumin non-secreting parents and glucocorticoid resistant, TAT-inducible, albumin secreting parents were glucocorticoid sensitive, TAT non-inducible and albumin non-producing. The TAT inducibility was extinguished in interspecific, interorgan hybrids of TAT-inducible hepatoma and non-inducible Chinese hamster fibroblast parents. No TAT reexpression was observed among the many independent hybrid clones. The experiments provided evidence for the non-coordinate control of the expression of differentiated functions in hepatoma hybrid cells.