Phenotypic changes and gene expression in human colon mucosal epithelial cells upon transfection of a SV40 DNA-gpt recombinant.

Phenotypic changes (increased longevity, decreased growth factor requirements, altered cell surface features, growth in semisolid agarose, and SV40 T antigen expression) suggesting in vitro transformation were displayed by human normal colon mucosal epithelial cells transfected with pSV3gpt, a pBR322 recombinant containing the SV40 "early" T antigen coding region and the dominant selectable marker bacterial gene, xanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase. In contrast, control cultures which received neither DNA nor the recombinant pSV2gpt (which is identical to pSV3gpt but lacks the SV40 T antigen region) were not phenotypically altered.