Professional Documents
Culture Documents
An Agent or Agents Produced by Virus-Transformed Cells Cause Unregulated Ruf Ing in Untransformed Cells
An Agent or Agents Produced by Virus-Transformed Cells Cause Unregulated Ruf Ing in Untransformed Cells
net/publication/20147809
CITATIONS READS
25 53
2 authors, including:
Nelly Auersperg
University of British Columbia - Vancouver
250 PUBLICATIONS 11,291 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Nelly Auersperg on 06 June 2014.
Abstract. K N R K cells (a normal rat kidney [NRK] ruffling movements on untransformed N R K cells, but
cell line transformed by Kirsten murine sarcoma vi- this ruffling continued for at least 20 h. This response
res) in sparse culture exhibit a highly ruffled morphol- was largely blocked by premixing the K N R K cell CM
ogy, but the cause of this ruffling is unknown. In this with rabbit IgG against rat transforming growth factor,
study, we have demonstrated that the continuous, ex- type a, (TGF-a). K N R K cells made quiescent (ruffle
cess ruffling on K N R K cells is caused by one or more free) by a pH shift (from 7.4 to 8.4) responded to
soluble agents secreted by the K N R K cells themselves. insulin, glucose, and K N R K cell CM with kinetics
To do this study, an assay for ruffling responses in live similar to those observed for each of these factors in
cell cultures was defined, and its reproducibility was N R K cells. The unusual feature for the ruffle-inducing
demonstrated. This assay permitted observation of the agent(s) produced by K N R K cells was that this activ-
kinetics of ruffling responses (percentage of cells ruf- ity was not subject, in either N R K or K N R K cells, to
fled as a function of time after stimulation). This the cellular off-regulation that limits the responses to
method was used to compare the kinetics of ruffling insulin or glucose. Thus, the continuous ruffling of
induced by insulin, epidermal growth factor, fibroblast K N R K cells is caused by their own unregulated ruffle-
growth factor, glucose, and K N R K cell conditioned inducing agent or agents, which appear to include
medium (CM). Ruffling was elicited on N R K cells by TGF-a. This work also demonstrates that kinetic anal-
each of the polypeptide mitogens and nutrients, but, ysis of cellular responses to exogenous factors can pro-
in each case, this ruffling subsided spontaneously vide new insights into the regulatory mechanisms in-
within an hour. CM from K N R K cells also caused volved in the normal limitation of these responses.
UFFLING on the free cell margins of sparsely cultured et al. (13) used this direct method to observe the ruffling
ceils can be elicited by various hormone-like growth induced by insulin treatment of KB cells. By repeatedly
factors including epidermal growth factor (EGF) 1 (7, counting the percentage of ruffled cells in the same specimen
8, 14, 16), nerve growth factor (8), platelet-derived growth over a period of time after the addition of insulin, these
factor (28), and even fresh serum-containing medium. With authors demonstrated the transient kinetics of insulin-induced
each factor, ruffling appears to subside spontaneously in < 1 ruffling at several concentrations and at several temperatures.
h at 37"C, indicating cellular off-regulating mechanisms. Ki- They also observed that glucose caused a small ruffling re-
netic analysis of these responses is limited by most methods sponse, but the duration of that response was not reported.
used to observe ruffling. Scanning electron microscopy pro- Increased and continuous ruffling is a frequently observed
vides excellent detail in the ruffles themselves but does not correlate of malignant transformation (1, 19, 21). Neither the
permit repeated observations on the same set of cells over an molecular mechanism underlying this alteration nor the sig-
experimental time course and is too cumbersome to confirm nificance of it is known. In particular, it is not known how or
repeatedly kinetic observations under numerous experimental if the ruffling of transformed cells relates to the transient
conditions. An alternative technique, time-lapse cinematog- mitogen-induced ruffling of normal cells. In the present study,
raphy, permits elegant visualization of ruffling activities over we compared ruffling responses in a normal rat kidney cell
time on the same cells, but the number of ceils that can be line (NRK) and a line of Kirsten murine sarcoma virus-
observed at the required high magnification is too limited to transformed cells (KNRK cells). Our objective was to deter-
permit extensive experimentation. The most useful approach mine the cause of the apparently unregulated (not transient)
to the analysis of ruffling kinetics is to observe living cells ruffling observed in the transformed line. Several polypeptide
directly with the aid of inverted phase microscopy. Goshima mitogens (insulin, EGF, and fibroblast growth factor) and low
~Abbreviations used in this paper: EGF, epidermal growth factor; KNRK,
molecular weight nutrients (glucose and vitamins) were tested
Kirsten murine sarcoma virus-transformed NRK; NKR, normal rat kidney; for ruffle-inducing capacity. The following factors were stud-
TGF, transforming growth factor; TRA, tumor ruffling agent. ied extensively: Insulin was chosen as a representative poly-
• k" ~
I= f o
JJ i ~
u i; -.,~ z , , ,
•' ; i I'<}, ~ ool ol lo Io
r~ 5O I~i il ";::< INSULIN /.tg ml
1.1.1
INSULIN I' - \ ,';....
i i ~"GLUCOSE
oL'/ ,20 o 3o go 9G ";' 2b.
MINUTES
e-/
i~i i ", ".- ......... ,.suL,N~os~
Figure 2. Percent o f N R K cells ruffled after exposure to insulin, -- . .-" / ",, ",. "...... 25
glucose, or KNRK conditioned medium as a function of time. Curves \ ~ .--"i "-... "-... ~.~'25
marked insulin and glucose: Cells were equilibrated for 2 h in buffer, t ~t ....... " r ' ~ l : ~ , . G ~ . . . . . 0.025
_ 1
kJ
oO