Human mesothelial cells are unusually susceptible to simian virus 40-mediated transformation and asbestos cocarcinogenicity

Mesothelioma, a malignancy associated with asbestos, has been recently link ed to simian virus 40 (SV40). We found that infection of human mesothelial cells by SV40 is very different from the semipermissive infection thought t o be characteristic of human cells. Mesothelial cells are uniformly infecte d but not lysed by SV40, a mechanism related to p53, and undergo cell trans formation at an extremely high rate. Exposure of mesothelial cells to asbes tos complemented SV40 mutants in transformation. Our data provide a mechani stic explanation for the ability of SV40 to transform mesothelial cells pre ferentially and indicate that asbestos and SV40 may be cocarcinogens.