Correlation of growth capacity of cells in hard agarose with successful transfection by the activated c-Ha-ras oncogene and in vivo proliferative capacity at metastatic sites

I. J. Fidler, L. Li, H. N. Ananthaswamy, N. Esumi, R. Radinsky, J. E. Price

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the degree of anchorage-independent growth of rodent or human cells in increasing concentrations of agarose correlated with successful transfection of the cells with an activated c-Ha-ras oncogene and tumorigenicity in nude mice. NIH 3T3 cells, C3H 10T1/2 fibroblasts, four clones of the murine K-1735 melanoma with different metastatic capacities and the TE85 human osteogenic sarcoma line were transfected with plasmids containing the 6.6-kilobase BamHI fragment of the mutant human c-Ha-ras gene and the neo gene, which confers resistance to neomycin (pSV2-neoEJ). Cells transfected with pSV2-neo, a plasmid containing the neo gene, served as controls. Cells from parental or transfected lines (selected by Geneticin) were plated into medium containing 0.3%, 0.6%, 0.9%, or 1.2% agarose. These cells were also injected subcutaneously and intravenously into nude mice. The production of tumor cell colonies in dense agarose (≥0.6%) correlated with successful transfection with pSV2-neoEJ and production of experimental metastases in the lung of nude mice. We conclude that the degree of anchorage-independent growth of cells predicts successful transfection with activated c-Ha-ras oncogene and tumorigenic behavior in vivo. Thus this technique may be useful for the detection of cells transfected with transforming oncogenes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)17-24
Number of pages8
JournalAnticancer research
Volume11
Issue number1
StatePublished - 1991
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • anchorage-independent growth
  • oncogenes transfection
  • tumorigenicity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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