Induction of cellular functions in spontaneously immortalized rat-2 cells transfected with cloned herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) DNA.

Experiments were done to determine if cloned transforming sequences from herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) DNA confer upon transfected Rat-2 cells the capacity to be stimulated in phospholipase and cyclooxygenase activities following 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) treatment. Tumor-derived Rat-2 cells transformed with sub-fragments (BamHI-E, HindIII/HpaI-ED, or PstI-C) overlapping the right-hand end of the BglII-C transforming region of HSV-2 DNA were stimulated by TPA in both phospholipase activity, measured by deacylation of arachidonic acid, and cyclooxygenase activity, measured by prostaglandin synthesis. Non-transfected Rat-2 control cells showed no increase in these enzyme activities following TPA treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that cloned HSV-2 DNA has the capacity to induce cellular functions (phospholipase and cyclooxygenase) in transformed mammalian cells.