CHARACTERIZATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RAT NEPHROBLASTOMA AND ITS CELL-LINE

Rat nephrobastoma (Wilms' tumor) was induced by transplacental adminis tration of N-ethyl-nitrosourea (ENU). The induced renal tumors were hi stologically compatible with human nephroblastoma. A cultured cell lin e (ENU-T-1) established from a xenotransplant, showed similar morpholo gical and biological features to cultured embryonal kidney cells. Intr oduction of normal human chromosome #11 (#11) bearing Wilms' tumor sup pressor gene(s) (WT) suppressed colony-forming ability on soft agar pl ates (CFA) but tumorigenicity of ENU-T-1 was not affected. Whereas tum origenicity of human nephroblastoma cell line, SK-NEP-1 was completely suppressed, CFA was unchanged. These facts indicated that pathogenene tic mechanism is different between human and experimental rat nephrobl astomas.