Genetic variability of the mouse hepatoma cells MH-22a revealed by RAPD-PCR-fingerprinting under different conditions of cultivation.
OBJECTIVE
to study genetic variability in clonal lines of the mouse hepatoma MH-22a and the dependence of the capability of different clonal line cells for differentiation on the amount of genetic disturbances revealed by the RAPD-PCR method.


METHODS
The hepatoma MH-22a and its ten clonal lines were transplanted into subcutaneous connective tissue (SCT) and the eye anterior chamber (EAC) by injection of the cells to syngenic C3HA mice. The growth of transplants was checked in 15-20 days after transplantation. The tumors were fixed in neutral paraformaldehyde (10%), passed through ethanol of increasing concentrations, embedded in paraffin and stained by hematoxiline and eosine and Van Gisone. The genetic heterogeneity in the hepatoma cell population MH-22a and its clonal lines in vitro and in vivo was revealed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR). For the estimation of genetic variability revealed in the fingerprints was used the genetic variability index (GVI), based on the Bootstrep and Mikulinskaya's statistic programme.


RESULTS
The comparative analysis of the genetic structure of the clonal line populations in vitro and in vivo has revealed that the amount of clones with the high, intermediate, and low variability is approximately the same in both cases. It was also shown that GVI in various clonal lines in vitro correlated with their vital ability: the clones yielding clone lines had the lowest GVI. The same GVI value was found in the clonal lines proliferated in the EAC regardless of their capability for differentiation. Intraclonal analysis has shown that the highest values of changes revealed on fingerprints of the amplification of DNA products do not prevent from differentiation of tumor hepatoma cells in the EAC.


CONCLUSIONS
These data allow concluding that the mouse hepatoma cells MH-22a can preserve ability for differentiation in spite of significant changes in their genome.
Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 194064, Russia. sveta@zxnet.spb.ru
S A
SA
Alexandrova
I N
IN
Shvemberger
D000818:Animals; D000867:Anterior Chamber; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology* / Q000637:transplantation; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005134:Eye Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D016678:Genome; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D008114:Liver Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000637:transplantation