Morphological and histochemical properties of human embryonic cells transformed by Rous and polyoma viruses.

It is shown that human embryonic cells transformed by Rous sarcoma virus (stable cell line 23) and those transformed by polyoma virus (stable cell line P-2) are morphologically distinguished from the normal human embryonic cells. The mitotic activity of P-2 cells was 51% and the mitotic activity of 23 cells was 48%. While the mitosis activity of human embryo fibroblast was 28%. The duration of the mitosis of P-2 cells was 20 hours and that of 23 cells was 18 hr. The duration of the mitotic cycle of human embryo fibroblast was 18 hr. The G1 periods lasted 6 hours for both the cell lines; the S period of P-2 cells lasted 8 hr and the S period of 23 cells was 6 hr. Both the cell lines had a high content of RNA, DNA, protein bound SH-groups, and a high activity of acid phosphatase, acid RNAase and glucose-6-phosphatase. The content of glycogen, and acidic mucopolysaccharides, the activity of NADPH-tetrazolium reductase, succinic dehydrogenase of both the lines were the same as in normal human cells.