Viruses and mammalian chromosomes. VII. The persistence of a chromosomal instability in regenerating, transplanted, and cultured neoplasms induced by human Adenovirus type 12 in Syrian hamsters.

The incidence of cells with karyotypic abnormalities, such as pseudodiploidy and aneuploidy, and of cells with chromosome aberrations, including breaks, fragmentations, and coiling anomalies, was estimated in regenerating, transplanted, and cultured neoplasms induced in Syrian hamsters by human Adenovirus type 12. The various neoplasms studied consisted of karyotypically heterogeneous cell populations. Numerous clones with particular chromosome complements were present, but stemlines were not a dominant feature of the neoplastic cell populations examined. A relatively high incidence of chromo some aberration persisted in all neoplasms. A possible relation ship between retention of the viral genome or part of it in the neoplastic cells and the persistence of a chromosome instability and the significance of chromosome aberration in Adenovirus12-induced oncogenesis are discussed.