Distinctive Patterns of Proliferative Activity in Kidney Cell Cultures Derived From Normal, Dimethylnitrosamine-Treated, and Renal Tumor-Bearing Rats 2

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Abstract
Administration of a single dose of the renal carcinogen dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) to rats 24 hours prior to isolation and culture of cells from the target organ is known to result in the growth of cells with characteristics radically different from those of cells cultured from the kidneys of an untreated animal; after five subcultures, cells isolated from DMN-treated rats become morphologically transformed. The examination of cell multiplication and rates of thymidine (TdR) incorporation suggested that the cells transformed by exposure to DMN in vivo were similar in culture to cells isolated from DMN-induced renal mesenchymal tumors. Following the isolation of renal cells from control and DMN-treated rats, rates of TdR incorporation were compared at each subculture. Distinction between the two cell populations was possible at the third subculture because of increasing incorporation by the carcinogen-exposed cells. Morphologic transformation of the carcinogen-exposed cells occurred by the fifth subculture and corresponded with the establishment of a high rate of TdR incorporation relative to that by earlier cultures of these cells; this high rate was maintained uniformly in subsequent subcultures. Thus increased TdR incorporation was a further characteristic expressed at the time of morphologic transformation and, in this experimental system, was a quantitatively more responsive parameter than cell number determinations.