Intercellular communication and tissue growth : IV. Conductance of membrane junctions of normal and cancerous cells in culture.

Epithelial cells of normal rat (adult) liver and hamster embryo in tissue culture communicate through membrane junctions: the membrane regions of cell contact are highly ion-permeable. Cancerous counterparts of these cells, cells from Morris' and Reuber's liver tumors and from x-ray-transformed embryo cultures, do not communicate under the same experimental conditions. These cells also fail to communicate with contiguous normal cells. Cancerous fibroblastic cells from a variety of tissues, including cells transformed by virus, x-radiation and chemicals, communicate as well as their normal counterparts; this is so for long- and short-term cell cultures. Communication in some fibroblastic cells is sensitive to components of blood serum: normal and transformed hamster embryo fibroblasts, which communicate when cultured in medium containing fetal calf serum, appear to lose communication in medium containing calf serum; the converse holds for hamster (adult) fibroblasts and 3T3 cells.