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.