Metabolic controls in precancerous liver: defective control of cholesterol synthesis in rats fed N-2-fluorenylacetamide

We have measured synthesis of cholesterol from 14C-acetate in liver slices rats fed the hepatocarcinogen, N-2-fluorenylacetamide (FAA). Within 2-3 weeks of beginning FAA feeding (a) cholesterol synthesis was increased (b) feedback control of cholesterogenesis was partially or completely lost, (c) cholesterol synthesis was extremely variable within all groups fed FAA. Feedback control was regained within 16 weeks in the liver, but remained defective in the hyperplastic nodules present on some livers at that time. The study of such precancerous livers should prove useful in understanding both the mechanism of lost metabolic control shown by fully-developed hepatomas, and the relationships between loss of control and the neoplastic process. © 1971.