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Transient Requirement for Prolactin as a Growth Initiator following Treatment of Autonomous Nb2 Node Rat Lymphoma Cell Cultures with Butyrate¹

Department of Cancer Endocrinology, Cancer Control Agency of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V5Z 4E6

A previous study described the development of cultures of Nb2 node rat lymphoma cells which specifically require a lactogenic hormone, e.g., prolactin (PRL), as a growth factor. In the present study, sublines of these cultures have been established, including clones, which do not depend on exogenous lactogens for growth; the cells do not appear to produce autocrine, PRL-like substances. Although these autonomous cells grew readily in the complete absence of lactogens, their growth rate was stimulated (up to approximately 30%) by PRL concentrations 0.1 ng/ml. When cultures of the lactogen-dependent and of the cloned, autonomous lymphoma cells were incubated for 3 days with sodium n-butyrate (NaBT; 2 mM), cells were arrested in the G₁ phase of the cell cycle, as shown by flow cytometric analysis. A substantial proportion of the G₁-arrested cells was viable and readily resumed growth, within 1 day, when transferred to NaBT-free medium containing PRL (1–100 ng/ml). The resumption of growth of the cells from the lactogen-dependent cultures was critically dependent on PRL; in its absence cells lysed. Surprisingly, the rapid recovery of the cells from the lactogen-independent cultures also depended on the presence of PRL in the medium; in its absence growth did not resume for at least 2.3 days. The acquired need of the NaBT-treated, autonomous cells for PRL was only transient, since such cells reverted fully to the PRL-independent state within about 3 days of culturing in PRL-containing, NaBT-free medium. It is proposed, as a working hypothesis, that the autonomous lymphoma cells can be mitogenically activated by two different pathways, one requiring exogenous lactogens and another which is independent of lactogens; the latter pathway recovers much more slowly from the treatment with NaBT than the lactogen-dependent pathway. This model could explain the sensitivity of the autonomous lymphoma cells to PRL and their transient dependency on exogenous lactogens during their recovery from NaBT treatment. NaBT would appear to be a useful agent for studying the mechanism(s) by which the autonomous lymphoma cells circumvent the need for mitogenic lactogens.

¹ This study was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Received 1/20/86. Revised 8/18/86. Revised 12/ 3/86. Accepted 1/ 2/87.

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