Loss of proliferative calcium dependence: simple in vitro indicator of tumorigenicity.

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Abstract
The proliferative activities of 3 lines of "normal" epithelioid rat liver cells and 6 tumorigenic liver cell lines in the presence of a wide range of Ca concentrations were measured by a simple colony forming assay. The proliferative activities of the normal cells and, to a lesser extent, of the cells of a marginally tumorigenic line were directly proportional to the extracellular Ca concentration. The proliferative activities of the cells of the strongly tumorigenic lines, on the other hand, were either uninfluenced by or inversely proportional to the extracellular Ca concentration. The proliferative response to the extracellular Ca concentration is a sensitive indicator of the carcinogenic potential of liver cells.