Promotional effect of different phorbol esters on morphological transformation of hamster embryo cells

Hamster embryo cells were sequentially exposed to benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) (3 days) and different phorbol esters (4 days). Compounds which have been shown to act as tumor promoters in mouse skin carcinogenesis, showed a promotion-like effect on the formation of morphologically transformed colonies, while non-promoting analogs did not enhance the transformation frequency. In experiments where the exposure sequence was reversed, i.e. 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in the first exposure period and BaP in the second period, no significant enhancement of the transformation frequency was observed. The exposure to a low concentration of BaP in the second exposure period following a higher concentration in the first period, resulted in a strong enhancement of the transformation frequency suggesting that BaP also acts as a promoter.