Enhancement of aggregation of Chinese hamster V79 cells in rotation culture by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate.

A potent mouse skin tumor promoter, 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), enhanced the increase in the size of aggregates of Chinese hamster V79 C-2 cells cultured in rotation flasks for 24 h. The effective concentrations of TPA were 1-100 ng/ml. Phorbol used as the negative control did not enhance aggregate formation of V79 C-2 cells. When aggregates that had formed in culture with TPA for 24 h were transferred to normal medium and cultured for another 24 h in rotation culture, aggregate size was not markedly enhanced as compared with that in the control culture. These results suggest that some changes produced in the cell surface by TPA remain irreversible on further culture in normal medium. No such difference in aggregate-forming activity was found in aggregates formed with phorbol. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the solvent had no effect at the concentrations used in these experiments.