THE ROLE OF ENDOGENOUS PROTEINS IN THE PROTEIN-FREE MAINTENANCE OF 3 DISTINCT TUMOR-CELL LINES INVITRO

We established new two protein-free culture subclones from murine well-characterized Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and P815 mastocytoma using intermittent protein-free culture performed previously for a protein-free subclone of fibrosarcoma (Gc-4 PF). The Ehrlich protein-free subclone (Ehrlich PF) grew much more slowly than the original cell line and showed a proliferative response to FCS. On the other hand, like Gc-4 PF, the P815 protein-free subclone (P815 PF) showed a similar growth rate to that of the original counterpart. Interestingly the original P815 mastocytoma cells also grew exponentially in protein-free medium. Although the protein-free culture exhibited cells that were more spheroid and spread less in each of these three cell lines, the major structure protein bands demonstrated on SDS-PAGE were virtually identical between the original and protein-free culture cells. In contrast to the structural peptides, the distribution of the secretory peptide differed among the three protein-free culture cell lines, which may reflect their state of differentiation. Growth-inhibiting activities were detected from the supernatant of all three protein-free culture cells, while no protein-free culture cells secreted predominantly growth-stimulating activity into their cultured media. These results suggest that autonomy in tumor cell proliferation may result from the acquisition of the ability to escape from negative control in multicellular organisms, as shown in monads, rather than an acquisition of further response to growth-stimulating control.