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Detection of Ki-ras Messenger RNA in Normal and Chemically Transformed Hamster Oral Keratinocytes¹

Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

The cheek pouch of the Syrian hamster is an excellent model for the experimental study of oral carcinogenesis. The carcinogenic chemical 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene consistently produces epidermoid carcinomas in the cheek pouch of the Syrian hamster, giving rise to characteristic histopathological lesions in a time-dependent manner. We now present experimental evidence that c-Ki-ras mRNA can be detected in all 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced tumors examined (in vivo and in vitro) in this experimental oral cancer model while no detectable c-Ki-ras mRNA can be found in the normal hamster cheek pouch epithelium. Cellular synchronization experiments using a cell line (hamster cheek pouch carcinoma cell line 1) derived from one of these 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced hamster oral tumors revealed that the c-Ki-ras protooncogene is expressed during the G₁ phase of the cell cycle (proliferation dependent). Serum starvation and RNA synthesis inhibition experiments using hamster cheek pouch carcinoma cell line 1 cells suggest that the c-Ki-ras protooncogene is indeed quiescent in the normal hamster cheek pouch epithelium and that failure to detect its mRNA is not related to the slower proliferation of the normal epithelial cells. These results suggest that the transcription of the c-Ki-ras protooncogene is associated with malignant transformation in the cheek pouch of the Syrian hamster.

¹ Supported in part by USPHS Grant DE08680; Grant 0128 from the Smokeless Tobacco Research Inc.; and a Cancer Research Scholar Award from the American Cancer Society, Massachusetts Division.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 188 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

Received 7/20/88. Revised 2/16/89. Accepted 5/ 2/89.

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