Precocious development of uridine diphosphate glucuronosyltransferase activity during organ culture of foetal rat liver in the presence of glucocorticoids

Abstract

Fetal rat liver explants were exposed to corticosteroids possessing a pregn-4''-ene structure and a hydroxy or an oxo group at C-11. Explants from 14 day fetuses cultured for 3 days in a chemically defined medium containing dexamethasone exhibited transferase activities towards o-aminophenol within adult male values. Those liver transferase activities attained in utero by 17 days were still negligible. The explants required glucocorticoids for expression of the transferase, not for maintenance of viability. Glucocorticoid-dependent stimulation of transferase activity required incorporation of L-14C-leucine into protein, as judged from the pulsing of cultures with cycloheximide. The relevance of these culture experiments to the situation in vivo is discussed.