[The spontaneous aneuploidy of the embryonic fibroblasts in C3H/He and CBA/Ca mouse strains occurring during their neoplastic evolution].

Karyological analysis of 6 cell lines with distinct tumorigenic properties of mouse strains C3H/He and CBA/Ca has been carried out using differential chromosome staining. All the cell lines are characterized by a decreased number of copies of normal chromosome 7, the increased number of normal copies of chromosome 10 being specific of the cell lines with intermediate tumorigenicity. Cell lines with maximum tumorigenicity differed from all other lines by the increased number of copies of chromosome 5 and by the decreased number of copies of chromosome 6. A wide independent variability was observed in the number of chromosomes and of several types of abnormal chromosomes throughout the neoplastic evolution of cells, to begin from the early immortal passages. But the proportion of normal chromosomes per cell in the studied lines revealed relatively stable values. The potential phenotypical heterogenicity of the lines with maximum tumorigenicity, expressed in their clonal progeny, was associated with the instability in the number of chromosome 15 copies in cells of these lines. It is concluded that multiple genetic events are required in the spontaneous neoplastic evolution of fibroblasts, and only specific traits of the karyotypic instability, associated with the variability of the number of copies of specific chromosomes, may constitute the genetic basis for the above process.