Effects of signalling transduction modulators on the transformed phenotypes in v-H-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells.

Several signalling transduction modulators were used to examine their effects on the morphological changes, foci formation in soft agar and cellular growth in v-H-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells. The results from this study showed that specific tyrosine kinase inhibitors (genistein and tyrphostin 23) and cyclic AMP-elevating agents (forskolin and 3-isobutyl-1-methyl-xanthine) could effectively induce differential flat phenotype of v-H-ras transformant at micromolar concentrations. At the same dose range, both signalling modulators also caused a significant suppression of anchorage-independent and cellular growth in the same transformant. By contrast, compound inhibitors such as protein kinase C (staurosporin and H-7), phospholipase A2 (aristolochic acid), phospholipase C (neomycin sulfate) and cyclooxygenase (indomethacin) all did not alter the cellular morphology or foci formation in soft agar, although PKC inhibitors exhibited a slight inhibition on the cellular growth. Based on these observations, we propose that the alterations of protein kinase A or tyrosine kinase-associated signal pathways is necessary and the original cause of the transformation event, but that increase of the activities of protein kinase C, phospholipase C, phospholipase A2 or cyclooxygenase probably is an indirect result of the v-H-ras-mediated transformation.