Matthews N, Neale M L
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Wales College of Medicine, Health Park, Cardiff, UK.
Br J Cancer. 1989 Feb;59(2):189-93. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.39.
Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is directly cytolytic to certain tumour cell lines in vitro, although TNF-resistant variants can be selected from these susceptible lines by exposure to TNF. While studying TNF-susceptible L929 cells and their resistant variant, L929/R, we noted that within L929 colonies the cells were widely spaced whereas they were closely packed in L929/R colonies. L929/R cells also adhered more strongly to plastic and differed from L929 in cell shape. Similar observations were made with TNF susceptible and resistant variants of two other cell lines (RK13 and a plastic adherent U937 subline). The tendency of resistant cells to grow closely together suggests the possibility of inter-cell communication for the TNF resistant state. However, like L929 and U937, L929/R and U937/R did not communicate by gap junctions and we could find no evidence of extracellular mediators of TNF resistance. Rather the differences in colonial morphology, cell shape and plastic adherence may be secondary to an underlying mechanism which defines TNF susceptibility/resistance.
肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）在体外对某些肿瘤细胞系具有直接的细胞溶解作用，尽管通过暴露于TNF可以从这些敏感细胞系中筛选出TNF抗性变体。在研究TNF敏感的L929细胞及其抗性变体L929/R时，我们注意到在L929集落中细胞间距较大，而在L929/R集落中细胞则紧密堆积。L929/R细胞对塑料的粘附也更强，并且在细胞形状上与L929不同。对另外两个细胞系（RK13和一个塑料粘附的U937亚系）的TNF敏感和抗性变体也进行了类似的观察。抗性细胞紧密生长在一起的趋势表明存在细胞间通讯以形成TNF抗性状态的可能性。然而，与L929和U937一样，L929/R和U937/R之间不存在间隙连接通讯，并且我们没有发现TNF抗性的细胞外介质的证据。相反，集落形态、细胞形状和塑料粘附的差异可能是由定义TNF敏感性/抗性的潜在机制所导致的。
