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Studies on shope fibroma virus: A tumorigenic poxvirus

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:7254543
The ability of Shope fibroma virus (SFV) to induce oncogenesis in vitro was investigated by inoculating an immortalized rabbit cell line (SIRC) with ultraviolet-irradiated virus. The resulting cell transformants displayed the characteristic properties of the malignant phenotype: lack of infectious particles, low serum requirement, high efficiency of cloning, resistance to superinfection, presence of viral DNA sequences in the nucleus, expression of viral proteins and induction of tumors in rabbits. This transformation was not stable since in all cell lines studied, a loss of the malignant phenotype was recorded close to the 50th passage. To assess the oncogenic potential of SFV, NTH 3T3 cells were transfected with SFV DNA. Focus-derived cell lines were established to study the biological and molecular properties of the transformants. At early passages all cell lines contained SFV DNA sequences and two of three lines tested expressed SFV DNA. To test which region(s) of the genome is (are) necessary for transformation, NIH 3T3 cells were transfected with cloned Bam HI fragments of SFV DNA containing terminal sequences of the molecule, either alone or in combination. Comparative DNA studies of SFV, Indiana virus and vaccinia virus revealed the presence of mitochondria (mt) DNA in purified preparations of viral DNA.
Research Organization:
City Univ. of New York, NY (USA)
OSTI ID:
7254543
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English