Variation in capacity for anchorage-independent growth among agar-derived clones of spontaneously transformed BALB/3T3 cells

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Vol. 44; no. 12; pp. 5570 - 5576
• Main Authors: ROMERDAHL, C. A, RUBIN, H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA American Association for Cancer Research 01.12.1984
• Subjects: Agar; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Adhesion; Cell Cycle; Cell Division; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Cells, Cultured; Clone Cells; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Phenotype; Tumor cell; Tumors; Cell culture; Vertebrata; Phenotype; Mammalia; Mouse; Transformed cell; Spontaneous; Rodentia; Agar; Tumor cell; Clone
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445

A subline of cloned spontaneously transformed BALB/3T3 cells had a colony-forming efficiency (CFE) in agar of 5 to 20%. Individual agar colonies isolated and reseeded into agar were not significantly more efficient at initiating colonies than the original unselected subline. Four successive cycles of agar growth and selection also failed to increase the mean CFE in agar. Randomly selected clones isolated on a plastic surface all had the capacity to grow in agar. These results suggest that the failure of the majority of the cells to grow in agar is not the result of an intrinsic or heritable inability to do so. The ability to initiate a colony in agar seems to vary phenotypically from cell to cell. In contrast, agar colonies isolated from some tumor cell lines (originating from related spontaneously transformed 3T3 cells) and reseeded in agar had a higher CFE than the unselected tumor cell lines. In one case, this increased CFE in agar was lost when the cells were passaged on plastic without further selection for agar growth. Thus, expression of the anchorage-independent phenotype may vary, even among related cloned populations of transformed cells.