ABSTRACT
Adipocyte differentiation induces spontaneously transformed cells to revert to a nontransformed state, and to be resistant to retransformation by chemical and physical carcinogens and oncogenes. Adipocyte differentiation induces SV40 T-antigen-transformed cells to revert to a nontransformed state. Adipocyte differentiation induces nontransformed cells to be resistant to transformation. The differentiation model used in most of the experiments to be discussed utilized 3T3T mesenchymal stem cells, which can differentiate into a variety cell types including adipocytes, myocytes, chondrocytes, and macrophages. The previous data provides evidence that differentiation can induce an anticancer activity that renders nontransformed 3T3T cells resistant to transformation by chemical and physical carcinogens and the EJ-ras oncogene. A series of experiments were designed to determine if the SV40 T-antigen transformed phenotype was suppressed initially in a high percentage of adipocytes and if this anticancer activity decays as the cells were restimulated to proliferate.
