Synthesis of a PDGF-like growth factor in human glioma and sarcoma cells suggests the expression of the cellular homologue to the transforming protein of simian sarcoma virus.

Several human normal and neoplastic cell lines were screened for production of PDGF receptor competing activity. Conditioned medium from two sarcomas and one glioma blocked 125I-PDGF binding to human foreskin fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner. In each case this effect was abolished when the conditioned medium was pretreated with PDGF-antiserum, indicating that the receptor competing activity was immunologically related to PDGF. Direct evidence for de novo synthesis of a PDGF-like component in the cultures was afforded by 35S-cysteine labeling of the three cell lines, followed by immunoprecipitation with PDGF antiserum. This resulted in the specific precipitation of a 31,000 molecular weight labeled protein, which upon reduction was split into two polypeptides of molecular weights 17,000 and 16,500. The significance of these findings in view of the recently discovered structure homology between PDGF and the transforming gene product of simian sarcoma virus, p28sis, is discussed.