Spontaneous in vitro transformation of human fibroblasts.

The establishment of a spontaneously transformed tumorigenic human fibroblast line, VIP-F:T, is described. This line was developed from a primary culture of normal skin from a donor from whom a separate nontransformed fibroblast line, Pen-F2, also was established. The transformed line VIP-F:T exhibited aneuploid karyotype with a marker chromosome, showed anchorage-independent growth, and produced progressively growing tumors with morphologic characteristics of sarcoma in CD-1 (nu/nu) nude mice. The normal fibroblast line Pen-F2 exhibited diploid karyotype, showed no anchorage-independent growth, and produced no tumors in the nude mice. The spontaneously transformed fibroblast line VIP-F:T and its normal counterpart Pen-F2 will be valuable in studies of oncogene expression and in other investigations relevant to neoplasia.