[Markers of malignant transformation in mouse cell lines]

The expression of three phenotypic markers of transformation in vitro, i.e. serum dependence, contact inhibition and anchorage dependence of growth has been investigated using the lines of mouse cells obtained from spontaneously in vitro transformed embryonal fibroblasts (three stages of a continuous passage in vitro being considered) and from induced tumours. The results obtained indicate that in the cell lines arising spontaneously in the continuous passage in vitro the origin of the transformation features can be observed. Anchorage independence demonstrates not high (r = 0.69) but much better correlation with tumourigenicity than other studied markers.