Reversal by glucocorticoid hormones of the loss of a fibronectin and probollagen matrix around transformed human cells.

Confluent cultured human skin fibroblasts had an extracellular fibrillar matrix of fibronectin and procollagen. Human skin fibroblasts transformed by SV40 did not have such a matrix. Treatment of transformed fibroblasts with 10(-5) to 10(-8) M dexamethasone and 10(-5) to 10(-7) M cortisol, but not testosterone or progesterone, caused partial restoration of the matrix. Glucocorticoid-treated transformed human fibroblasts can serve as a model for partial reversion toward normal or differentiation of transformed human fibroblasts.