Temperature-sensitive tumorigenicity of cells transformed by a mutant of Moloney sarcoma virus

Normal rat kidney cells were nonproductively infected either with CP27, a mutant of Moloney sarcoma virus that is temperature-sensitive for maintenance of transformation, or with the parental wild-type virus. The nonproducer cells were inoculated into the tails of athymic nude mice that were subsequently incubated at 28 or 36 degrees C. CP27-infected cells induced tumors only at 28 degrees C, whereas cells infected with wild-type Moloney sarcoma virus were tumorigenic at both temperatures. Tumors induced at 28 degrees C by wild-type virus-infected cells grew faster after shift of the mice to 36 degrees C. In contrast, tumors induced by CP27-infected cells regressed upon shift to 36 degrees C, indicating that continuous expression of viral functions is required for persistence and growth of the tumors. After regression, secondary tumor growth was observed late after upshift of temperature-sensitive tumors. Cells recovered from these late-appearing tumors were tumorigenic at the nonpermissive temperature, and tumors induced by these cells did not regress after upshift. Virus rescued from these recovered cells retained the temperature-sensitivity for focus formation, indicating that the occurrence of the phenotypically wild-type cells was due to host cell modifications rather than to reversion of the CP27 genome.