Rat serum albumin synthesis in variant rat hepatoma cells

Variant subclones of the rat hepatoma cell line FU5‐5 have been isolated that are altered in their production of rat serum albumin. Three of these variants, isolated in a random screening, have been categorized as high, intermediate, and low producers. They secrete albumin into the culture medium at different rates: 16, 1.7, and 0.3 μg/mg cell protein/48 h. A fourth variant, isolated on the basis of altered morphology, secretes no detectable albumin. Unlike the albumin‐producing variants, this null variant is also deficient in the level and inducibility of tyrosine aminotransferase activity. Albumin biosynthesis as determined in pulse‐labeling experiments is affected similarly in the four variants, yielding albumin synthetic rates of 0.24, 0.035, 0.006, and < 0.002% of total protein synthesis. The translatable albumin messenger RNA content in these variants was measured using a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system. The null variant contains no detectable mRNA, and the three quantitative variants contain levels of translatable albumin messenger RNA corresponding to 0.07, 0.03, and 0.005% of total stimulated polypeptide synthesis. The highest producing variant contains less translatable albumin mRNA than expected on the basis of cellular biosynthetic measurements, suggesting a translation efficiency difference in this clone. Cell hybrids constructed by fusing the high‐producing clone and the null variant produce little or no albumin. This extinction indicates that the null variant contains a diffusible regulatory factor capable of decreasing albumin gene expression. The relatively stable and discrete heritable phenotypic changes exhibited by these clones may serve as a model for similar changes that occur during hepatic differentiation.