Proto-oncogene expression in three human hepatoma cell lines, HCC-M, HCC-T and PLC/PRF/5.

Changes of nucleotide sequences and expressions of cellular oncogenes in human hepatoma cell lines, PLC/PRF/5, HCC-M and HCC-T cells, were examined by Southern and Northern blot analyses. The probes used are DNA fragment of myc, N-, H-, K-ras, fos, fms, raf, erb-A, erb-B, and erb-B2 genes and synthetic oligonucleotides corresponding to the part of N-, H-, K-ras genes. The results are as follows. DNA amplification and rearrangement were not detected in these three human hepatoma cell lines. Point mutations at codons 12, 13, and 61 in N- and K-ras genes were not demonstrated in these cell lines. N-, H-, K-ras and myc transcripts were detected in these three cell lines. However, fos gene transcript was detected only in PLC/PRF/5 and HCC-M cells which were derived from hepatitis B related hepatocellular carcinoma and having integrated hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA. These data showed that there are no specific proto-oncogene expression into RNA except for myc and ras genes, nor DNA rearrangement in these 3 human hepatoma cell lines with regards to at least 10 different oncogenes examined and suggest the relationship between fos gene expression and integration of HBV DNA in host cell DNA.