title: Possible activity of acidic fibroblast growth factor as a progression factor rather than a transforming factor.
abstract: Acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF and bFGF) are mitogens for mesoderm- and neuroectoderm-derived cells. The facts that FGF-related proteins are oncogenic and that FGFs are expressed in a variety of tumor cell lines or tumor tissues suggest the transforming activities of FGFs. To examine such an activity of aFGF, we introduced a human aFGF expression vector into two populations of Rat-1 cells; one was non-transformed (nRat-1), the other was partially-transformed (tRat-1). tRat-1 cells transfected with aFGF cDNA formed larger colonies in soft agar and produced larger and more malignant tumors in nude mice than those of parental cells. In contrast, nRat-1 cells transfected with aFGF cDNA neither formed colonies in soft agar nor produced tumors in nude mice. Our results suggest that high expression of aFGF may enhance a tumorigenic potential of Rat-1 cells rather than confer such a potential de novo.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology*; D002460:Cell Line; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D016220:Fibroblast Growth Factor 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000473:pathology; D010957:Plasmids; D012313:RNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D051381:Rats; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016220:Fibroblast Growth Factor 1; D012313:RNA