Modulation of differentiation in PA-1 human teratocarcinoma cells after N-ras oncogene-induced tumorigenicity

We have been studying the effect of oncogenes on differentiation using the human ovarian teratoma-derived cell line PA-1. From this study we have characterized variants representing four stages relevant to multistage carcinogenesis, two non-tumorigenic and two tumorigenic. The two non-tumorigenic cell variants differ in that one is resistant to transformation by ras oncogenes whereas the other can be transformed to tumorigenicity. When these non-tumorigenic PA-1 variants are treated with retinoic acid (RA), a morphogen, they stop dividing, begin to express homeobox genes, and change in morphology. Transfection of an activated N-ras oncogene into ras-resistant non-tumorigenic PA-1 cells does not alter the RA responsiveness of the cells, indicating that expression of the activated oncogene is not sufficient for blocking RA-induced differentiation. Spontaneous activation of an N-ras oncogene leading to tumorigenic transformants and gene transfer-induced N-ras transformants are resistant to these effects of RA. However, another spontaneous transformant of PA-1 cells that does not contain an activated N-ras is responsive to RA. We prepared somatic cell hybrids of the RA-non-responsive, N-ras-transformed and tumorigenic PA-1 cell and the RA-responsive, ras-resistant non-tumorigenic PA-1 cell; the hybrid cell lines continue to express the oncogene but are non-tumorigenic. These non-tumorigenic hybrids are responsive to RA with regard to morphological changes, growth arrest and induction of homeobox gene expression. Tumorigenic revertants of these hybrids arise as a result of the loss of some chromosomes; these hybrid cells express the oncogene but have lost RA responsiveness. These results indicate that tumorigenic transformation in general is not sufficient to induce RA resistance, and resistance to differentiation may be oncogenespecific. In addition, the expression of an activated N-ras oncogene alone is insufficient to induce resistance to RA and ras-induced tumorigenicity is necessary. Therefore, some feature of cellular metabolism that is altered by and discordantly segregates with tumorigenic transformation controls responsiveness to RA. This controlling element is presumably a tumor suppressor.