title: Inheritance of malignancy in somatic cell hybrids.
abstract: After a recall of the importance of early basic developments of in vitro established cell lines for investigations on malignant transformation, a survey of essential steps in the study of malignancy by means of somatic cell hybridization is presented. Since the early sixties, in vitro crosses of malignant versus nonmalignant parental cells have provided many experimental models in which mechanisms of expression of malignancy have been approached. Allogenic as well as xenogenic cell matings resulted in tumor-producing or nontumorigenic hybrids which have been analyzed, particularly in terms of karyology in order to determine possible chromosomal patterns linked with inheritance of malignancy and its suppression. The authors discuss the successive concepts devised for interpretation of experimental data, implicating specific genetic "normalizing" information, genetic dosage as well as, more recently, epigenetic and cytoplasmic mechanisms.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006224:Cricetinae; D004261:DNA Replication; D005796:Genes; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D006822:Hybrid Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D007621:Karyotyping; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D011817:Rabbits; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics