Marker chromosome stability associated with neoplastic transformation of human uroepithelial cells

Chromosome studies were performed on three independently derived tumor cell lines established from carcinomas induced in nude mice after innoculation of SV40 immortalized human uroepithelial cells that had been treated with methylcholanthrene. Tumor 1 was an undifferentiated carcinoma, while tumors 7 and 9 were both squamous carcinomas. After six to eight passages in vitro the tumor cells were each reinoculated into other nude mice to yield secondary tumors (1.1 and 7.1). Chromosome studies on both primary and secondary tumors demonstrated the same distinctive chromosome markers. Tumors 1 and 1.1 shared the same histopathology in addition to the same modal chromosome number and identical chromosomal duplications and deficiencies; the same was true of tumors 7 and 7.1. Tumor 9, which did not yield a secondary tumor, nevertheless showed the same chromosome pattern in different passages. The stability of the characteristic marker chromosomes in the three tumor cell lines distinguishes these malignant lines from the nonmalignant SV40 transformed parent line from which the three tumors derived because the parent line was characterized by extreme marker instability. This suggests that the stable marker chromosomes that characterize the tumor cell lines may be critical for their tumorigenicity, and that evolution of an adaptive neoplastic genome may select for cytogenetic stability as long as there are no new selective pressures.