Malignant progression of an SV40-transformed human epidermal keratinocyte cell line

Human foetal keratinocytes were transfected with a recombinant plasmid (pSV6-1) which contained an origin defective SV40 genome. The resulting transformed cell line had many properties in common with previously described SV40-transformed keratinocytes, including expression of simple epithelial-type keratins. It was non-tumourigenic in nude mice at early passages, forming small benign cysts, however, after approximately 46 in vitro passages, these transformed keratinocytes formed invasive squamous cell carcinomas in athymic nude mice. Several in vitro changes were associated with this acquisition of tumourigenicity (a) an alteration in cellular morphology, (b) development of a cytogenetically marked clone and (c) loss of cell surface fibronectin. The loss of fibronectin was also observed in vivo; cysts formed by SV6-1 Bam/HFK produced human fibronectin whereas tumours did not, although both tumours and cysts were laminin- and keratin-positive. These results indicate that the spontaneous development of secondary events in immortalised human cells may lead to the acquisition of a malignant phenotype.