Expression of a fms-Related Oncogene in Carcinogen-Induced Neoplastic Epithelial Cells

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 84; no. 7; pp. 1804 - 1808
• Main Authors: Walker, Cheryl, Nettesheim, Paul, Barrett, J. Carl, Gilmer, Tona M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 01-04-1987; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: Animals; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell - pathology; Cell Line; Cell lines; Cell physiology; Cell transformation and carcinogenesis. Action of oncogenes and antioncogenes; Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; Epithelial cells; Epithelium; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gamma Rays; Gene Amplification; Genes; Macrophages; Messenger RNA; Methylnitronitrosoguanidine - toxicity; Molecular and cellular biology; Oncogenes; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases - genetics; Rats; Receptors; RNA; Trachea; Tracheal Neoplasms - pathology; Transformed cell line; Tumor cell line; Tumors; Carcinogen; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Rat; Induction; Animal; Chemical compound; C-Onc gene; Malignant transformation; Rodentia; Epithelial cell; Gene expression
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.84.7.1804

Following carcinogen exposure in vitro, normal rat tracheal epithelial cells are transformed in a multistage process in which the cultured cells become immortal and, ultimately, neoplastic. Five cell lines derived from tumors produced by neoplastically transformed rat tracheal epithelial cells were examined for the expression of 11 cellular oncogenes previously implicated in pulmonary or epithelial carcinogenesis. RNA homologous to fms was expressed at a level 5-19 times higher than normal tracheal epithelial cells in three of five of the tumor-derived lines. All three lines expressing high levels of fms-related RNA gave rise to invasive tumors of epithelial origin when injected into nude mice. Increased expression of the fms-related mRNA was not due to gene amplification, and no gene rearrangement was detected by Southern analyses. RNA blot analysis using a 3′v-fms probe detected a 9.5-kilobase message in the three tumor-derived lines, whereas both normal rat aveolar macrophages and the human choriocarcinoma line BeWo expressed a fms transcript of ≈ 4 kilobases. We conclude from these data that the gene expressed as a 9.5-kilobase transcript in these neoplastic epithelial cells is a member of a fms-related gene family but may be distinct from the gene that encodes the macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) receptor.