QUANTITATIVE SELECTIVITY OF CONTACT-MEDIATED INTERCELLULAR COMMUNICATION IN A METASTATIC MOUSE MAMMARY-TUMOR LINE

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 43  (9) , 4102-4107
Abstract
Contact-mediated intercellular communication was examined by measuring the transfer of thioguanine sensitivity to a hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (EC 2.4.2.8)-negative clone (66cl-4) selected from one subline isolated previously from a spontaneously arising mammary tumor of a BALB/cfC3H mouse. Other sublines from the same tumor and unrelated cell types were tested for their ability to serve as 6-thioguanine nucleotide donors to 66cl-4 cells. The degree of communication, measured by the number of donor cells required to reduce the number of thioguanine-resistant colonies, varied with the donor cell type. The 66cl-4 line communicated with the parent cell line from which the thioguanine-resistant cell was selected and with other sublines from the parent tumor, with some unrelated tumor cells, and with some nonneoplastic cells (3T3 [mouse embryonic fibroblasts], hamster kidney and lung fibroblasts and mouse mammary epithelial cells). There was a quantitative difference in the amount of communication which took place with the various cells tested, but no pattern of difference could be discerned. Line 66cl-4 did not preferentially communicate with cells of epithelial vs. fibroblast morphology, nor with tumor vs. nontumor cells. The 66cl-4 cells retained the ability of their parent line to form metastatic tumors when injected s.c. into BALB/c mice. A quantitative selectivity of communication is expressed in these malignant metastatic cells, but it is apparently unrelated to either the morphological or malignant phenotype of the donor. Contact-mediated communication between tumor subpopulations may differentially affect growth and drug sensitivity within a tumor.