Sequential carcinogen treatment (diethylnitrosamine/partial hepatectomy followed by 2-acetylaminofluorene (2-AAF)) induced multiple hepatocarcinomas in rats with 100% certainty within a year. Enzyme-altered lesions, i.e. γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT)-positive and/or ATPase-negative cell foci, were numerous already at 8 weeks, and suspensions of purified hepatocytes isolated (by collagenase perfusion) at this time contained 30–40% GGT-positive cells. These hepatocyte suspensions were markedly deficient with respect to autophagic protein degradation (in comparison with cell suspensions from normal rats), and the cells lost less protein and survived much better than normal hepatocytes in culture under conditions of amino acid deprivation (which activates the autophagic mechanism). The anabolic advantage of reduced autophagy may possibly contribute to the selective outgrowth of preneoplastic cells during the earliest stage of liver carcinogenesis. Inclusion of the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine in the culture medium elevated the survival of normal hepatocytes up to the level seen with hepatocytes from carcinogen-treated animals, suggesting that protection of normal cells by autophagy suppression may be a potentially interesting therapeutic principle.