Characteristics of a conditional mutant of Rous sarcoma virus defective in ability to transform cells at high temperature

Separation of v-Src-induced mitogenesis and morphological transformation by inhibition of AP-1

v-Src activity results in both morphological transformation and reentry of quiescent chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) into cell cycle. We have previously used temperature-sensitive v-Src mutants to show that enhanced activity of cellular AP-1 in the first few hours after activation of v-Src invariably precedes the biological consequences. Here we have investigated whether the early activation of AP-1 is essential for any or all of the v-Src responses by using a mutant c-Fos that comprises the leucine zipper and a disrupted basic region. Expression of the c-Fos mutant partially reduced cellular AP-1 activity in exponentially growing cells. However, in CEF that had been made quiescent by serum deprivation, v-Src-induced stimulation of AP-1 DNA binding activity was substantially reduced. In addition, quiescent CEF stably transfected with this mutant show an impaired mitogenic response to v-Src, indicating that the AP-1 stimulation is a necessary prerequisite for cell-cycle reentry. The ability of v-Src to morphologically transform quiescent CEF was not impaired by the inhibition of AP-1 stimulation, indicating that the mitogenic and morphological consequences of v-Src have distinguishable biochemical mediators. Focal adhesion kinase, a recently identified determinant of cell morphology, undergoes a gel mobility shift, characteristic of its hyperphosphorylated state, in response to v-Src activation in cells expressing the inhibitory AP-1 protein. This provides further evidence that the pathways that regulate morphological transformation are independent of AP-1.

Tissue type plasminogen activator, but not urokinase, exerts transformation-enhancing activity

Previous studies have established that plasma cryoprecipitates of tumor patients, culture media of transformed cells and defined proteolytic fragments of fibronectin enhance the morphological cell transformation ( TEF activity) in cultures of chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with temperature-sensitive mutants of Rous sarcoma virus. We now report that purified human tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA), but not urokinase (u-PA), has a similar TEF activity, at doses as low as 2 ng/ml (30 pM). Specific antibodies effectively neutralized the activity. No significant contamination (less than or equal to 1%) between the preparations of t-PA and fibronectin (FN) or its fragments ( FNdp ) was detected. The results suggest that t-PA may have a direct role in the process of morphological cell transformation in vitro.

A ts T mutant of Schmidt Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus restricted at 39.5 degrees C for the morphological transformation and the tumorigenicity of chicken embryo fibroblasts

In order to investigate a possible correlation between in vitro transformation and tumorigenicity in ovo, a new temperature-sensitive class T mutant of Rous Sarcoma Virus was isolated with a lower (39 degrees 5C) restrictive temperature for morphological transformation. This lower restrictive temperature was compatible with the survival of chicken and duck eggs for the tumorigenicity studies. In chicken embryo fibroblasts (CEF) infected by this new mutant, PA 17, and cultured at 39 degrees 5C, increase of hexose uptake, plasminogen activator production and anchorage-independent growth were only partially restricted, requiring incubation at 41 degrees 5C for a complete shut-off. Tumorigenicity in chicken and duck eggs inoculated with CEF infected and transformed by PA 17 was restricted at 39 degrees 5C, correlating well with the restriction of morphological transformation at this temperature. The kinase activity of the transforming protein pp60src in lysates of PA 17 infected cells cultured at permissive or restrictive temperatures was labile in RIPA buffer, as in the case of some previously examined ts T mutants. In the non-ionic detergent NP40 buffer, the kinase activity of PA17 infected cell lysates was better conserved and showed a moderate temperature dependence. These results suggest that, in spite of the correlations between the transformed cell phenotype in vitro and cell tumorigenicity in ovo, it is difficult to establish a quantitative relationship.

Transformation-enhancing activity of gelatin-binding fragments of fibronectin

Studies have established that cryoprecipitates of the plasma of tumor patients contain a biological activity enhancing morphological cell transformation (transformation-enhancing factor; TEF) in cultures of chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with temperature-sensitive mutants of Rous sarcoma virus. We report here that similar TEF activity is effected by defined fragments of human plasma fibronectin obtained by limited digestion with major humoral or tissue proteinases. TEF activity was obtained from plasminolytic fragments of fibronectin and from cathepsin G-treated fibronectin. No activity was recorded from intact dimeric fibronectin or its reduced and alkylated subunits, from fibrinogen or its plasminolytic fragments, or from plasmin (EC 3.4.21.7) or cathepsin G (EC 3.4.21.20) treated or untreated with proteinase inhibitors. All of the TEF activity of the proteolytic fragments of fibronectin was located on the gelatin-binding peptides. The minimum effective doses in the TEF assay were 750 ng/ml of plasmin-treated fibronectin, 100 ng/ml of gelatin-binding plasminolytic fibronectin (enriched in Mr 180,000--190,000 polypeptides), and 100 ng/ml of gelatin-binding fragments of cathepsin G-treated fibronectin (enriched in a Mr 30,000 fragment). TEF activity of proteinase-treated fibronectin was inhibited by gelatin and by intact dimeric fibronectin. The potent TEF activity of proteolytic fragments of fibronectin raises the possibility that they may have a role in malignant transformation.

Mutants of Fujinami sarcoma virus which are temperature sensitive for cellular transformation and protein kinase activity

Two temperature-sensitive mutants of Fujinami sarcoma virus were isolated and characterized. Cells infected with the mutants were temperature sensitive in focus formation, colony formation, increased sugar uptake, and synthesis of plasminogen activator. The changes between transformed and nontransformed states of cultures were completely reversible by shifting the temperature. A Fujinami sarcoma virus-specific protein of 130,000 daltons, p130, was synthesized in mutant-infected cells regardless of the temperature, but the immunoprecipitates of p130 from extracts of infected cells were active in protein kinase only when cells had been incubated at the permissive temperature. These results appear to indicate that p130 is the transforming protein of Fujinami sarcoma virus, and that its protein kinase activity plays a crucial role in cell transformation by this virus.

Potential diagnostic and prognostic significance of the transformation-enhancing factor(s) in the plasma cryoprecipitate of tumor patients

A biological activity which enhances cell transformation (TEF) in Rous sarcoma virus temperature-sensitive mutant-infected cultures has been evidenced in the plasma cryoprecipitate from patients affected with different types of neoplastic disease. In the present paper we report data on the analysis of TEF activity in the plasma cryoprecipitates from leukemic and tumor patients tested either before or during specific antineoplastic treatments. The screening of 57 cases of different neoplastic diseases and of 57 controls, healthy subjects or patients affected with other non-neoplastic diseases indicates that TEF activity is generally related to the presence of neoplasia. Furthermore, a follow-up of patients from the onset of the disease through its evolution during therapy suggests that variations of TEF activity in the plasma cryoprecipitate correlate well with the clinical and pathological conditions, thus indicating the TEF as a potential marker for monitoring cancer patients.

Simultaneous decrease in deamination of 5'-adenylic acid and 5'-deoxy-5'-S-isobutylthioadenosine in chick-embryo fibroblasts infected by Rous sarcoma virus

The rate of deamination of 5'-deoxy-5'-S-isobutylthioadenosine [(iBuS5'Ado] in chick embryo fibroblasts was substantially reduced after their infection and morphological transformation by Rous sarcoma virus. Concomitant with the reduction in rate of (iBuS)5'Ado deamination there was a decrease in adenosine deaminase and 5'-adenylic acid deaminase activities. The drop of these activities was related to infection and not to the expression of the src gene. (iBuS)5'Ado was deaminated by at least three enzymes or isoenzymes whose apparent molecular weights have been estimated to be 295000, 121000 and 37000 respectively. Two of these enzymes have been characterized as 5'-adenylic acid deaminase and the heavy form of adenosine deaminase, respectively.

Interaction between cellular and viral genes in the expression of the RSV-induced transformation-specific cell-surface antigen VCSA

Transformation of BHK hamster fibroblasts by an env- strain of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) leads to the appearance at the cell surface of a virus-induced nonvirion antigen (VCSA), specific for transformation, whose expression is controlled by the transforming src gene. Previous work has shown that a rabbit anti-VCSA serum lyses specifically, in the presence of complement, 51Cr-labelled RSV-transformed cells from different animal species. Now, by competition experiments with a panel of different unlabelled cells we show that the VCSA expressed on RSV-transformed hamster fibroblasts is a complex of at least three distinct antigenic specificities: (1) one expressed on all RSV-transformed fibroblasts, regardless their species and the subgroup or strain of the transforming virus; (2) one cross-reacting with a cell-surface antigen (CSA) expressed at various degrees on untransformed avian fibroblasts, but not on mammalian fibroblasts; (3) one species-specific, present only on RSV-transformed hamster fibroblasts. It is concluded that VCSA is a complex of several antigenic determinants, and that some of these differ in different cells transformed by RSV. This observation indicates that VCSA expression at the cell surface is likely to be the result of the interaction between the viral src gene product pp60src with host cell gene(s) or gene product(s), rather than the simple expression of this molecule at the cell surface.

Temperature-sensitive tumorigenicity of cells transformed by a mutant of Moloney sarcoma virus

Normal rat kidney cells were nonproductively infected either with CP27, a mutant of Moloney sarcoma virus that is temperature-sensitive for maintenance of transformation, or with the parental wild-type virus. The nonproducer cells were inoculated into the tails of athymic nude mice that were subsequently incubated at 28 or 36 degrees C. CP27-infected cells induced tumors only at 28 degrees C, whereas cells infected with wild-type Moloney sarcoma virus were tumorigenic at both temperatures. Tumors induced at 28 degrees C by wild-type virus-infected cells grew faster after shift of the mice to 36 degrees C. In contrast, tumors induced by CP27-infected cells regressed upon shift to 36 degrees C, indicating that continuous expression of viral functions is required for persistence and growth of the tumors. After regression, secondary tumor growth was observed late after upshift of temperature-sensitive tumors. Cells recovered from these late-appearing tumors were tumorigenic at the nonpermissive temperature, and tumors induced by these cells did not regress after upshift. Virus rescued from these recovered cells retained the temperature-sensitivity for focus formation, indicating that the occurrence of the phenotypically wild-type cells was due to host cell modifications rather than to reversion of the CP27 genome.

Hexose uptake enhancing factor released from Rous sarcoma cells

Conditioned media from Rous sarcoma virus transformed chicken embryo fibroblasts stimulate the uptake of 2-deoxyglucose in normal chicken fibroblasts. The factor responsible for this effect, which is also shed in very low amount by non-transformed fibroblasts, is destroyed by trypsin and not linked to the protease and plasminogen activator activities present in the media. Its apparent molecular weight, determined by gel filtration, is about 20,000 daltons. The factor released by transformed cells might be related to the monomeric form of a family of glucose binding and transport proteins recently reported by Lee and Lipmann ('78) to be detached by detergents from normal and transformed cells.

Tumor-specific and tumor-associated membrane antigens of Rous sarcoma virus transformed hamster fibroblasts

Hamster fibroblasts transformed by an env- strain of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) express at their surface tumor-associated antigens of unknown origin and a tumor-specific antigen (VCSA) which is not expressed by hamster fibroblasts transformed by unrelated DNA or RNA oncogenic viruses. This antigen was detectable by rabbit antibodies and a complement-dependent 51Cr-release cytotoxicity assay and is common to RSV-transformed cells of different animal species. By comparing the anti-VCSA serum which antisera directed against purified gp85, gs-proteins, reverse transcriptase or detergentlysed virus particles, it was shown that VCSA is not a known virion structural protein. Moreover, VCSA expression does not correlate with viral replication since it is not detectable in chick embryo fibroblasts productively infected with the transformation-defective virus RAV-1 which shares virus structural genes with RSV. Finally, in hamster cells transformed by an RSV mutant, temperature-sensitive for the ability to transform the host cell, VCSA expression at the cell surface correlates with the expression of the transforming gene.

Immunochemical purification of probe-labeled plasma membrane proteins: an approach to the molecular anatomy of the cell surface

The probe 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sodium sulfonate may be used under appropriate conditions for selective labeling of plasma membrane proteins exposed at the outer cell surface. Labeled proteins, solubilized by detergents, can be purified by reverse immunoadsorption using antiprobe antibodies covalently linked to Sepharose 4B. This method has been applied to an investigation of the outer cell surface structure of chicken embryo and hamster fibroblasts. Coelectrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels of probe-labeled membrane proteins purified from baby hamster kidney fibroblasts have shown that 7 major protein groups of different molecular weight are exposed on both control and Rous sarcoma or polyoma virus-transformed cells. Moreover, the transformed cells display a nonvirion component of 80--100 k daltons that is not labeled by the probe in normal cells. In fibroblasts transformed by a temperature sensitive Rous sarcoma virus mutant, that transforms at 37 degrees C but not at 41 degrees C, the expression of this component is related to the expression of the transformed phenotype.

The chick chorioallantoic membrane as a model system for the study of tissue invasion by viral transformed cells

The chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) was used as an assay system to investigate the the invasive properties of viral transformed NIH/3Y3 cells. Scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that single Kirsten sarcoma virus (KiSV)-transformed cells passed between the epithelial cells of the CAM ectoderm within 6 hr of application, while viable NIH/3T3 cells did not penetrate the ectoderm within 24 hr. The transformed cells entered the mesoderm of the CAM and formed tumors of proliferating cells. The application of 5 X 10(5) KiSV-transformed cells resulted in the formation of donor cells resulted in the formation of the donor cell tumors within 5 days in 43% of the membranes. No tumors were formed when as many as 5 X 10(6) NIH/3T3 cells were applied to the membrane. NIH/3T3 cells transformed by the Abelson leukemia virus or the Moloney sarcoma virus also ivaded the CAM and formed tumors of proliferating cells within the mesoderm, while cells infected with the Moloney leukemia virus did not. NIH/3T3 cells inoculated onto the CAM 8 days after infection and transformation with KiSV formed tumors with a frequency similar to that of KiSV transformed cells that have been passaged in culture for many generations. Cells that formed invasive tumors within the mesoderm also attracted loops of host blood vessels.

Transformation-enhancing factor(s) produced by virus-transformed and established cells

Chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF) and hamster BHK21 cells transformed by the Schmidt-Ruppin strain of Rous sarcoma virus (SR-RSV) release into the culture medium a factor or factors which enhance 2- to 7-fold the formation of transformed foci by chich embryo fibroblasts infected with the Bryan strain of RSV (B-RSV). The factor(s) also increase the number of foci failing to revert to normal phenotype at restrictive temperature (41 degrees C) in cultures infected with a temperature-sensitive mutant (FU-19) of SR-RSV which is defective for transformation. The factor(s) is produced also by BHK21 cells transformed by other tumor viruses and by BHK21 cells passaged for a long time, but not by normal CEF, CEF transformed by B-RSV, CEF infected by FU-19 at 41 degrees C, normal hamster embryo fibroblasts, established but density-inhibited mouse fibroblasts, or BHK21 cells of early passages. The relative enhancement of the number of B-RSV foci can be more than 100-fold when the medium contains fetal calf serum which suppresses focus formation in controls. The focus-enhacing factor(s) appears to act after infection and has been termed, operationally, transformation-enhancing factor(s) or TEF. The factor produced by RS2/3 cells which enhances the formation of B-RSV foci is non-dialyzable and thermolabile, and is presumably a protein. Its molecular weight is between 10(5) and 2 X 10(5) daltons.

Control of the uptake of amino acids by serum chick embryo cells, untransformed or transformed rous sarcoma virus

Forty to fifty minutes after removal of serum, the net total uptake of amino acids in growing secondary cultures of normal or virus-transformed chick embryo cells, stopped or proceeded only at a highly reduced rate. In both normal and transformed cells, the initial (0-40 min) rate of the above uptake was the same in the absence of serum as in its presence. The initial rate of the total uptake of amino acids in growing transformed cells was about the same as in growing normal cells. Neither in the normal nor in the transformed cells was the rate of the total uptake of amino acids reduced by cell confluence alone. In highly dense, hyperconfluent cultures of normal cells in which cell growth was arrested, the rate of uptake in the absence or in the presence of serum was four- to fivefold lower than the rate obtained in growing normal cells under similar conditions; in the absence of serum, the net uptake stopped after 40 min in the hyperconfluent cultures as well. It appears that cells growing in tissue culture require a serum factor for maintenance of the required high rates of uptake of amino acids and that the inhibition of growth at high cell densities is a result of depletion of this factor from serum, or the inability of the cells in a dense culture to respond to the factor. A serum factor is apparently also required for maintenance of the reduced rates of uptake of amino acids observed in hyperconfluent cultures.

Use of epithelial cell cultures for studies on the mechanism of transformation by chemical carcinogens

Evidence is reviewed for and against four major theories of chemical carcinogenesis. The development of several normal and transformed epithelial cell lines which should be useful for the analysis of this problem is described. The detection of RNA viral particles in cells transformed with chemical carcinogens is a recurrent finding in studies from our own and other laboratories, but the significance of these particles in terms of the mechanism of chemical carcinogenesis remains to be determined. Finally, we have described the first mutants of chemically transformed epithelial cells which are temperature sensitive in the maintenance of the transformed phenotype. These mutants should be particularly useful for detecting the critical biochemical changes that distinguish a chemically induced tumor cell from its normal counterpart.

Infectious DNA recovered from avian tumor-virus-producing cells

A single treatment of chick embryo fibroblasts with DNA recovered from chick embryo fibroblasts productively infected and transformed with four different strains of RSV, or productively infected with two different strains of RAV, resulted in virus production and cell transformation (in the case of RSV) two or three passages after treatment (8-25 days). The virus recovered from cultures was phenotypically identical to that produced by the donor cells. No virus production nor cell transformation resulted from treatment of control cultures with DNA digested with DNAse. Infectious RSV-DNA was recovered from purified donor cell nuclei and was associated with the precipitable fraction of DNA prepared according to the method of Hirt (1967). It also sedimented with cellular DNA in density gradients, and with high molecular weight DNA (2-4 times 10-7 daltons) in sucrose gradients, which suggests that it is associated and may be integrated with chromosomal DNA. In some experiments, DNA fractions of lower molecular weight (down to 6 times 10-6 daltons) were also infectious. DNA from virus-producing RSV-transformed cells also gave rise to virus and Rous cells in cultures of fibroblasts from gs- embryos. However, the amount of DNA required for successful infection varied widely between experiments, and no reproducible dose-effect relationship was observed. The frequency of DNA-treated cells which produced virus remained low, even when the assay cultures were pretreated with 5-bromodeoxyuridine.

Temperature-sensitive mutants of chemically transformed epithelial cells

The first temperature-sensitive mutants of epithelial cells transformed with chemical carcinogens have been isolated. Like the wild-type transformed parental cells, the mutants readily grow in agar suspension at 36 degrees, but in contrast to the wild type, they do not do so at 40 degrees. Detailed studies of one of these mutants, TS-223, indicate that at high temperature it also has reduced cloning efficiency in monolayer culture and a lower saturation density. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that at 40 degrees confluent cultures of TS-223 consist of a monolayer of generally flat polygonal cells, whereas 36 degrees cultures contain many patches of piled-up cells that are spherical and have rougher surface membranes. All of these cellular changes are reversible with upward or downward temperature shifts. The temperature-sensitive lesion appears to reside in a host cell gene which modulates expression of the transformed cell phenotype. These mutants may provide a useful system for elucidating the minimal biochemical changes required for expression of the transformed phenotype in epithelial cells.

Proposal for numbering mutants of avian leukosis and sarcoma viruses

A system for the numbering of mutants of avian sarcoma and leukosis viruses is proposed.

Sugar transport in normal and Rous sarcoma virus-transformed chick-embryo fibroblasts

3-O-methylglucose (3-OMeG) is a nonmetabolizable glucose analog and is, therefore, suitable for transport studies. 3-OMeG and glucose compete for entry into normal and Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)-transformed chick-embryo fibroblasts. Therefore, 3-OMeG can be used to study the transport of glucose in these cells. Chickembryo fibroblasts infected and transformed by RSV take up 3-OMeG at a faster rate than uninfected cells when both cell types are growing at the same rate. The rate of efflux of 3-OMeG also increases after transformation. When the uptake and the efflux reach a steady state, the intracellular concentration of 3-OMeG is equal to the concentration in the medium. This finding indicates that glucose is transported across the plasma membrane by facilitated diffusion. The V(max) of the transport system for 3-OMeG increases after transformation, while the affinity or K(m) of the system remains unchanged. We conclude that viral transformation causes a change in the plasma membrane of the infected cells by increasing either the number of molecules or the mobility of the glucose carrier.

An enzymatic function associated with transformation of fibroblasts by oncogenic viruses. II. Mammalian fibroblast cultures transformed by DNA and RNA tumor viruses

Chick, hamster, mouse, and rat embryo fibroblast cultures, transformed by either DNA or RNA viruses, show fibrinolytic activity under suitable conditions of growth and in appropriate media; normal counterpart cultures do not. The fibrinolysin is produced by the interaction of two protein factors: one of these, a cell factor, is released by transformed cells and accumulates in the medium when cultures are incubated in the absence of scrum. The second factor, the serum factor, is a specific protein that is present in sera of many avian and mammalian species, including man. Not all sera yield fibrinolysin on interaction with any given transformed cell factor, and the spectrum of activating sera is distinctive for each cell factor. This pattern appears to be determined by the cell type, rather than by the transforming virus. An important role for the fibrinolysin in oncogenic transformation is suggested by the following correlations. (a) The initial appearance of fibrinolysin precedes the morphological change after the transfer to permissive temperatures of chick fibroblast cultures infected with a temperature-sensitive mutant of RSV. (b) The initiation of fibrinolysis and of morphological change both require the synthesis of new protein, but not the synthesis of either DNA or rRNA. (c) The activity of the fibrinolysin is correlated with the retention of abnormal morphology in hamster cells transformed by SV-40. (d) The sera of normal chicks effectively activate fibrinolysis with the cell factor from transformed chick cells. In contrast the sera of chicks with RSV tumors do not; these contain an inhibitor of the fibrinolytic activity.