Human bronchial epithelial cells neoplastically transformed by v-Ki-ras: altered response to inducers of terminal squamous differentiation.

Many human bronchial adenocarcinomas have been shown to contain an activated Ki-ras oncogene (Rodenhuis et al., N. Engl. J. Med. 317 929-935, 1987). To test the hypothesis that activated Ki-ras may be causally related to human bronchial carcinogenesis, v-Ki-ras oncogene was transferred into an established human bronchial epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B, by infection with Kirsten murine sarcoma virus (Ki-MSV) or by transfection with a plasmid containing the transforming region of Ki-MSV. These cells formed poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas in athymic nude mice. Cell lines established from these tumors expressed v-Ki-ras p21 protein and were highly tumorigenic. Whereas serum or transforming growth factor beta 1 induced the BEAS-2B cells at clonal density to undergo growth arrest and squamous differentiation, BEAS-2B cells containing activated ras genes were unaffected by transforming growth factor beta 1 and were mitogenically stimulated by serum.