Motility of rasH oncogene transformed NIH-3T3 cells.

A series of rasH oncogene-transformed cell lines were established from NIH-3T3 cells using the calcium phosphate precipitation method of transfection. The transfectant lines formed highly-invasive tumors when injected into athymic mice while the parent cells did not. When examined for motility in the micropore filter assay, all of the transfectant lines were motile in response to either laminin or fibronectin while the parent cells were not stimulated by either factor. These studies, therefore, indicate that transformation of NIH-3T3 cells with the rasH oncogene results in the generation of cells with increased capacity for motility relative to the parent cells.