Neoplastic potentials and regulation of uptake of nutrients. I. A glutamine independent variant of polyoma BHK with A very high neoplastic potential.

A variant of polyoma BHK cells is described which is capable of growing in a glutamine-free medium. These glutamine-independent variant cells (GIV) have a size and morphologic appearance intermediate between the nontransformed (BHK) and polyoma transformed (Py6) cell line. In contrast to Py6, the GIV cells grow more slowly, produce less lactic acid and do not grow in suspension. However, their adherence to substrate and release of galactosyltransferase into the medium is comparable to that seen with the parent PyBHK. Most striking is the finding that GIV cells are more readily agglutinated by Concanavalin A and when inoculated into hamsters are much more tumorigenic than the parent Py6 cells.