The effect of transfection of NIH 3T3 cells by the human ras (c-Ha-ras-1) oncogene on uptake, interconversion, and excretion of polyamines was studied. Uptake and interconversion of spermidine were higher in the ras-transfected cells. Acetylpolyamines were excreted into the medium by the ras-transfected cells, whereas they were retained by NIH 3T3 cells. In addition to acetylpolyamines, some un...

Polyomavirus middle tumor antigen (mT) was expressed in a line of mouse NIH 3T3 cells under control of the dexamethasone-regulatable mouse mammary tumor virus promotor. Contrary to rat F111 cells which were rendered anchorage independent by mT expression alone (L. Raptis, H. Lamfrom, and T.L. Benjamin, Mol. Cell. Biol. 5:2476-2487, 1985), mT-producing NIH 3T3 cells were unable to grow in agar e...

Non-virus-producing NIH/3T3 cells transformed by the murine sarcoma virus are agglutinated by conconavalin A to the same low level as normal NIH/3T3 cells. Infection with the murine leukemia virus greatly increases the agglutination of transformed cells but not that of normal cells. These data suggest that the morphological expression of cell transformation and the surface alterations associate...

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) overexpressed from a heterologous promoter drives the tumorigenic transformation of NIH 3T3 cells and provides a model to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. These transformed cells, designated NODC cells, exhibit elevated levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase (Tyr-k) activity relative to control transfected cells and inhibi...

Murine embryonic stem cells are able to differentiate into embryoid bodies (EBs) in vitro in the absence of leukemia-inhibitory factor with the formation of different types of hematopoietic precursors within these EBs. With the aim of determining the in vitro requirements for the continued development of hematopoietic colony-forming cells (CFCs) and their progeny from embryonic stem-derived cel...

We established a subclone, SHOK, from the GHE-L cell line, an immortal line derived from a primary culture of Syrian hamster embryo cells, as a recipient cell line useful for the detection of oncogenes by transfection. SHOK cells were almost as susceptible as NIH 3T3 cells to focus formation by many oncogenes, including v-raf, v-Ha-ras, v-Ki-ras, or activated c-Ha-ras. The susceptibility of SHO...

Polyamines are small cationic molecules required for cellular proliferation. Agmatine is a biogenic amine unique in its capacity to arrest proliferation in cell lines by depleting intracellular polyamine levels. We previously demonstrated that agmatine enters mammalian cells via the polyamine transport system. As polyamine transport is positively correlated with the rate of cellular proliferati...

Microphthalmia transcription factor (MITF) is a basic-helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper-type transcription factor. The mutant mi and Mi(wh) alleles encode MITFs with deletion and alteration of a single amino acid, respectively, whereas the tg is a null mutation. In coculture with NIH/3T3 fibroblasts, the numbers of cultured mast cells (CMCs) derived from C57BL/6 (B6)(mi/mi), B6(Miwh/Miwh), and B6...

One mechanism by which chemotherapeutic agents kill tumor cells is by induction of apoptosis. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF/FGF-2) has been reported to inhibit apoptosis in NIH 3T3 cells treated with chemotherapy drugs. We have investigated how bFGF modulates apoptosis induced by cisplatin in NIH 3T3 cells. Treatment with 10 microgram/ml cisplatin for 12 h induced apoptosis in 2 to 13% o...

Ultraviolet C (UVC) is a DNA damage inducer, and 20 J/m(2) of UVC irradiation caused cell growth inhibition and induced cell death after exposure for 24-36 h. The growth of NIH 3T3 cells was significantly suppressed at 24 h after UVC irradiation whereas the proliferation of A431 cells was inhibited until 36 h after UVC irradiation. UVC irradiation increased COX-2 expression and such up-regulati...