Survival differences exhibited by normal and transformed rat liver epithelial cell lines in the aggregate form.

Normal and transformed rat liver epithelial cell lines exhibited differences in the ability to survive in the aggregate form. Normal rat liver epithelial cells in the aggregate form underwent a rapid decline in the number of viable cells, while counterpart transformed epithelial cells exhibited an ability to survive and proliferate in the aggregate form. This survival ability was found to correlate with colony formation in soft agar and tumorigenicity in nude mice. Cell survival in the aggregate form could possibly serve as a criterion for in vitro transformation of epithelial cells derived from rat liver.