Increased sensitivity of cultured fibroblasts from colon cancer-prone rats to cytotoxicity of carcinogens and to viral transformation: a comparison with fibroblasts from patients with adenomatosis coli.

Lethal effects of mitomycin C (MMC), 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) and ultraviolet light (UV) on fibroblast cell lines derived from a colon cancer-prone substrain of Wistar-Furth rats (WF/OSAKA rats) were measured in terms of the cellular colony-forming ability, and compared with the sensitivity to these agents of human fibroblasts from patients with adenomatosis coli and rectum (ACR). All 6 fibroblast strains from the cancer-prone WF/OSAKA rats were significantly more sensitive (though to various extents) to MMC as well as 4NQO than normal rat fibroblasts derived from the parental WF Hiroshima rats. These WF/OSAKA cell strains were slightly more sensitive to UV than normal rat cell strains. Similarly, 5 out of 6 fibroblast strains derived from ACR patients were hypersensitive to both MMC and 4NQO. Further, the WF/OSAKA cell strains were more susceptible to morphological transformation induced by Kirsten murine sarcoma virus than normal rat strains. The observed higher sensitivity to chemical agents and to viral transformation suggests a close similarity in cellular terms between the colon cancer-prone WF/OSAKA rats and human individuals affected with ACR.