Spontaneous metastatic potential of rat hepatocarcinoma cells after cell fusion or DNA transfection

Eight LF × ICIG cell hybrid clones, isolated upon fusion of normal ICIG-7 human fibroblasts with tumorigenic, non-metastatic LF CI.2A cells derived from a DAB-induced rat hepatocarcinoma, were studied. 'They were all highly tumorigenic and were capable of developing spontaneous lung metastases in syngeneic animals. All the hybrids were characterized by a rapid loss of human chromosomes. However, in long-term culture, they all revealed a persistence of human genetic information as assessed by Southern blotting. In hybrid lines in which human chromosomes were still visible, the most recurrent were numbers 7 and 9. Neither chromosome 7, previously reported to bear some of the genes controlling metastasis in human × mouse T-cell hybrids, nor chromosome 9 appeared to be correlated with the metastatic potential of LF × ICIG hybrids. The same conclusion applied (I) to a human 3.3-kb EcoRI DNA fragment which was amplified (approx. 10-fold) only in metastases induced by one out of 3 metastatic hybrids tested; (2) to the transcription level of c-Ha-ras and c-Ki-ras genes which was enhanced (approx. 4-fold) in metastatic and non-metastatic lines as well. Co-transfection of LF CI.2A cells with pHSG 272 selectable marker DNA and genomic DNA from normal ICIG-7 human cells or from a hybrid-induced metastasis, reproducibly gave rise to geneticin-resistant transfectants capable of producing spontaneous lung metastases. Neither transfectants nortransfectant-induced metastases harbored detectable human DNA sequences but all harbored pHSG 272 DNA. These results again call for caution in gene transfer studies of the metastatic process.