Sanford J A, Stubblefield E
Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030.
Oncogene Res. 1989;4(3):195-204.
DNA-mediated gene transfer has been used successfully in many experiments to identify and isolate transforming sequences from human tumors and tumor cell lines. This work was done to compare the efficiency of that technique to microcell-mediated chromosome transfer in the transformation of NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells. Our hope was that oncogenes introduced into a cell in chromosomal form would also be effective in the transformation of NIH 3T3 cells. The study revealed, however, that microcells from cell lines that contain transforming sequences identified by DNA-mediated gene transfer were unable to transform NIH 3T3 cells, although other human genes were expressed in the microcell hybrids. Several possible mechanisms are given and discussed. This research may provide important insight into the possible control of oncogenes in intact human tumor cells.
