| Abstrakt: |
Normal embryonal mouse liver cells in culture were shown to undergo spontaneous transformation during prolonged subculture. The spontaneously transformed cells lost their anchorage dependence, as measured by a soft agar assay, and gave rise to tumors in nude mice. Accompanying this transformation, the antioxidant enzymes, copper- and zinc-containing superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD), manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase, decreased significantly in activity; the decline in enzymatic activity of CuZnSOD, MnSOD and CAT was due to a decline in the levels of immunoreactive protein. These spontaneously transformed high passage in vitro liver cells appeared similar in morphology, antioxidant enzyme activity and tumorigenicity to their counterparts transformed by N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine and Simian virus 40. These data provide experimental evidence that changes in antioxidant enzymes are associated with spontaneous in vitro cellular transformation of mouse embryonal liver cells. |
