The adhesiveness of normal and SV40-transformed BALB/c 3T3 cells: effects of culture density and shear rate.

The adhesiveness of BALB/c 3T3 cells and their SV40 virally transformed counterparts as assessed by aggregation kinetics was found to vary as a function of cell culture density and aggregation conditions. In culture, SV3T3 cells were found to have a faster growth rate and a smaller cell volume than 3T3 cells. Although both cell-types displayed increasing adhesiveness with increasing culture density, the adhesiveness of SV3T3 cells was consistently lower than that of 3T3 cells of comparable culture density when the cells were aggregated under shear rate conditions less than or equal to 45/sec. When the shear rate was increased from 90 to 450/sec, however, the aggregation profile inverted, with the 3T3 cells becoming less adherent than the SV3T3 cells. The ability of the transformed SV3T3 to remain adherent under conditions of relatively high shear may facilitate extravasation during the process of tumour spread.