Anchorage-independent growth of normal calf lens epithelial cells and effect of SV40 transformation on their growth properties

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Abstract
Calf lens epithelial cells cultured in vitro show growth properties usually associated with virally transformed fibroblasts. The lens cells are anchorage independent, forming colonies in agar, and show a low requirement for added mitogens. In dense culture they form multilayers and maintain a constant cell number by proliferation and shedding. Strains of lens cells transformed by SV40 virus have been obtained that show similar growth properties to the normal lens epithelium. The major effect of SV40 transformation is to increase the growth rate, final cell density and in vitro life‐span of the lens cells and to inhibit the increase in size that occurs after 2–3 weeks of culturing the untransformed cells.