Differing electrical surface charge and transplantation properties of genetically variant sublines of the TA3 murine adenocarcinoma tumor.

Comparative measurements have been made of the transplantation and electrical surface charge properties of the near-diploid TA3-Ha ascites tumor and a new hypotetraploid ascites subline designated TA3-L. The negative surface charge density and the density of electrophoretically detectable sialic acid residues were determined to be twice as great for TA3-L as TA3-Ha cells. The two TA3 sublines were found to have identical growth properties in isogeneic mice and to exhibit progressive growth in three allogeneic strains of mice. The lethal tumor cell inoculum in allogeneic mice was lower in all cases for the TA3-L cells. From a comparison of several TA3 ascites tumor sublines, it can be concluded that their transplantability into allogeneic strains of mice is correlated with the density of negative surface charge but is independent of the degree of tumor aneuploidy.