Tumorigenicity, invasiveness and metastatic capability of FR3T3 rat cells before and after transfection with bovine papilloma virus type 1 DNA.

Fischer rat FR3T3 cells were tested for tumorigenicity, invasive and metastatic capabilities before and after transfection, either with the entire bovine papilloma virus type 1 (BPV-1) genome or with a plasmid (pV69) containing a 69 per cent Bam H1-Hind III fragment of the BPV-1 genome as well as bacterial sequences. Cell lines were grouped as parental, pV69-transfectants, BPV-1 transfectants, in vitro derivatives, and in vivo derivatives. The tumorigenic, invasive and metastatic capabilities of these cell lines were examined in vivo through s.c., and i.p. injections of cell suspensions and through s.c. implantations of cellular aggregates into syngeneic rats. Invasiveness was tested in vitro through confrontations with embryonic chick heart fragments in organ culture. All cell lines including parental lines, were found to be invasive in vitro and tumorigenic in vivo; all tumors were invasive. It is, therefore, not possible to draw conclusions about the role of BPV-1 gene sequences in the acquisition of the invasive phenotype. Transfection with BPV-1 genes conveyed the metastatic phenotype upon parental FR3T3 cells, which were themselves found to be non-metastatic. With regards to this, no differences were found between BPV-1 transfectants compared with pV69 transfectants. Untransfected cells became metastatic also through passage in vivo as an s.c. tumor. The expression of the metastatic phenotype was not noticeably correlated with alterations of growth characteristics of the cell lines. We concluded that the implication of BPV-1 gene sequences in conveying the metastatic phenotype upon FR3T3, if any, was indirect, presumably through alterations of the host cell genome. Our experiments illustrate the need for long-term observations with parental cell lines before drawing conclusions about the role of oncogenes in the acquisition of the malignant phenotype.