A system for deriving revertants of oncogene-transformed human cells

We have previously shown that some transformed derivatives of the human osteosarcoma-derived cell line HOS are killed by treatment with 1 microM ouabain at pH 8.2, whereas their nontransformed counterparts are relatively unharmed by the same conditions. HOS cells transformed by v-Ki-ras and RAS, v-fms, or MET are susceptible to 1 microM ouabain while those transformed by v-fes are not. Here we describe the adaptation of this differentially cytotoxic effect as a method to enrich for cells which revert to a nontransformed phenotype. We have optimized parameters which increase the differential cytotoxicity, including pH and potassium concentration during and subsequent to ouabain treatment. The efficiency of this procedure was tested in mixed cell experiments where model populations were constructed consisting of HOS cells mixed with an excess of v-Ki-ras-transformed HOS cells. Two successive OAK treatments (ouabain/alkaline/K+-free) were sufficient to recover nontransformed cells free of ras-transformants as indicated by genetic markers and morphology. This HOS/ouabain system is currently being used to derive revertants of ras-transformed human cells and could facilitate the isolation of genes interacting in the pathways by which these cells are transformed.