title: Neoplastic transformation of fetal lamb kidney cells by bovine leukemia virus.
abstract: Neoplastic transformation of fetal lamb kidney (FLK) cells by bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is reported. Morphological transformation was observed in FLK cells within a few weeks of BLV inoculation. BLV-transformed FLK cells had the following properties generally associated with viral transformation: (1) altered morphology; (2) increased growth rate; (3) colony formation in soft agar medium; (4) formation of large cell aggregates and growth in this aggregate form above an agar base; and (5) tumorigenicity in nude mice. The transformed cells contained BLV-specific p24 and gp51 antigens and were virus producers. BLV was detected in transformed cells by syncytial assay. The transformed cells yielded high-titered viral reverse transcriptase activity and viral particles. The transformed cells contained marker chromosomes (M1, M2, M3, M4 and M7) and a large submetacentric chromosome, but control cells did not. Thus, we demonstrated the neoplastic transformation of FLK cells by BLV.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002449:Cell Aggregation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000473:pathology*; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D007668:Kidney / Q000196:embryology; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D001909:Leukemia Virus, Bovine / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000473:pathology; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D012756:Sheep; D013997:Time Factors