Histochemical localization of enzymes in the embryonic chick liver Research supported by grant HD 00557 from NICHD, National Institutes of Health and grant ACS IN 40-D from the University of Michigan Cancer Research Institute.

Abstract

Oxidative and hydrolytic enzymes were localized histochemically in the developing chick liver and in liver grown as chorioallantoic (CAM) transplants or as explants in organ culture. In the in situ liver, parenchymal cells exhibited an increase in succinate (SDH) and a glycerophosphate (GDH) dehydrogenase activity and a decrease in NADP diaphorase (TPND) during development. NAD diaphorase (DPND) and nonspecific esterase (NSE) activity remained constantly high throughout the period studied. Within the stromal cells, DPND and NSE activity decreased and SDH, GDH and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) increased. The ALP activity of the sinusoidal cells appeared to increase coincident with a redistribution of TPND within the cytoplasm of the parenchymal cells. In CAM transplants, the enzyme activity of all tissues was nearly the same as the five day liver even though the total age of the tissues was 15 days. Liver explants exhibited enzyme activity similar in part to both the 5 and 15 day liver. In both explants and transplants, ALP activity was highest in areas where the parenchymal-sinusoidal relationship was maintained and absent in areas where the parenchyma and sinusoidal cells were not in contact.