Transformation of a mammary epithelial cell line by the v‐raf and v‐mos oncogenes

Abstract

Defective retroviruses were used to investigate the effects of the oncogenes v-raf and V-mos on the behaviour of mammary epithelial cells. Cultures of the mammary epithelial cell lines #43 and NMuMG infected with either virus showed obvious areas of overgrowing cells, which were not seen when cells were infected with control viruses not containing an oncogene. Several clonal cell lines were derived from the areas of overgrowth on #43 cells. Most of these were tumorigenic on subcutaneous inoculation. In culture, several of the cloned lines showed marked morphological abnormalities, had altered rates of growth and saturation densities, and were able to clone in soft agar. Unexpectedly, one raf-containing and one m o n t a i n i n g line grew more slowly in culture than did control or uninfected cells. Other lines showed only some of these changes. In the ms-containing liner the level of viral transcript corresponded approximately to the extent of transformation, whereas the raf-containing lines showed no such correlation.

The aging of the 2000 and 2011 Hallmarks of Cancer reviews: A critique

“…During the Oncogene Revolution (1975–1985), it was emphatically claimed that these genes or their gene products directly stimulated the proliferation of cells either in culture or in animal experiments. In fact, no such direct stimulation has been verified (Scully and Edwards 1991; Jacobsen et al 2002). Even one of the pioneers in the field of oncogenes admitted two decades ago that ‘… we have learned very little about the causes of cancer from the study of proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes’ (Bishop 1991).…”