[The regulation of protein kinase C activity in normal, immortalized and transformed rat fibroblasts]

In view of recent studies showing that cell proliferation of E1Aad5+c-Ha-ras-transformed fibroblasts cannot be regulated by growth factors and phorbol eaters in contrast to normal and E1Aad5-immortalized cell lines, the present work was undertaken to examine the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in the mitogenic signal transduction machinery in rat embryonal fibroblasts. It is shown that PKC is activated by acidic growth factor and phorbol esters in all the three cell lines. These findings suggest the existence of an additional, not associated with PKC-, growth-signaling pathway in E1Aad5-Ha-ras-transformed rat embryonal fibroblasts.