Selective enhancement of metastatic capacity in mouse bladder carcinoma cells after transfection with dna from liver metastases of human colon carcinoma

Abstract

To identify sequences associated with a metastatic phenotype, DNA fragments isolated from 2 separate human colon carcinoma metastases were transfected into a mouse bladder carcinoma cell line together with the neoR gene as selectable marker. It was found that bulk populations of neomycin resistant cells carrying these human sequences caused more metastases in syngeneic mice than did control cells transfected with calf thymus DNA. Cells isolated from metastases retained the highly metastatic phenotype when transferred to secondary hosts.