Phenotypic drug resistance in mammalian cells in vitro.

When mammalian cells are cultured at low concentrations of toxic drugs, they often become phenotypically resistant. We studied whether this phenotypic resistance is due to selection of preexisting variants. The drugs 8-azaguaine (AG) and 6-thioguanine (TG) were used and, as a parameter for resistance, the incorporation of hypoxanthine was determined. Preexisting variation among clones in the uptake of hypoxanthine was found, and this variation has a hereditary component. This transmission of aberrant incorporation of hypoxanthine does not appear a stable trait, and the aberrant cell lines returned gradually to the original steady state. There are indications that within a cell population cells with altered levels of incorporation of hypoxanthine arise continuously and at a high frequency. Treatment with marginally toxic concentrations of AG or TG indicates that, at least for AG, survival is not related to the preexisting variation in hypoxanthine uptake. The observed phenomena could be of importance for the selection of drugs to be used in cancer chemotherapy.