Lack of correlation between growth characteristics, agglutinability by plant lectins and the malignant phenotype

Wheat germ agglutinin and Concanavalin A were found to agglutinate a variety of normal hamster cells as well as a number of lines of transformed or tumor cells. The normal cells included preparations from embryos and neonatal organs, and the spontaneous line, BHK-21 C13. In order to explore more fully the situation in regard to the BHK cells, three sublines were isolated and studied. A "flat revertant" selected by FUdR treatment grew to diminished saturation density and failed to produce colonies in soft agar in contrast to the parent line, which did. Yet, it was only minimally less tumorigenic and less agglutinable than the parent line. Lines derived from one and four consecutive in vivo tumor passages showed increased tumorigenicity and growth in soft agar when compared to the parent line. Although the first passage line showed increased saturation density, the saturation density of the fourth passage line was similar to or less than that of the parent cells. Agglutinability of these lines was not significantly increased. These results indicate that, in contrast to widely accepted beliefs, tumorigenicity may correlate poorly with growth characteristics and agglutination by plant lectins.