Retention of phospholipid acyl groups is not characteristic of neoplastic cells in culture.

Phospholipid acyl group retention of normal and mouse sarcoma virus transformed cell lines has been examined. The cells were fed [1-14C]oleate for 24 h and then grown to non-radioactive medium for 4 days. Both the transformed rat and mouse cell lines continued to release 14C-labeled fatty acids and phospholipids into the culture medium similarly to the uninfected cells, and showed shifts in 14C between phospholipid subclasses. Thus, the phospholipid acyl group stability reported for L cells is not characteristic of oncogenic cells in culture.