Properties of two temperature-sensitive Rous sarcoma virus transformed cerebellar cell lines

Cells from the cerebellum of 3-day-old BD-IX rats were obtained as permanent lines by transforming them with temperature-sensitive Rous sarcoma virus. The presence or absence of veratridine-stimulated Na+-uptake (voltage-dependent channels) was used to operationally classify them as neuronal or glial. When incubated at 34 degrees C, the permissive temperature for transformation, the cerebellar cells exhibit a transformed phenotype determined by anchorage independence, rounded morphology, high growth rate and absence of density-dependent inhibition of growth. In contrast, when the transformed cerebellar cell lines are kept at a temperature (38 degrees C) non-permissive for transformation, they exhibit a normal cellular phenotype with respect to the above properties. Moreover, changes toward neuronal morphology, increase in veratridine-stimulated Na+-uptake, decreased growth rate and the expression of the astrocyte specific protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein, suggest that a degree of differentiation is expressed at the non-permissive temperature.