Growth effect of lithium on mouse mammary epithelial cells in serum-free collagen gel culture

✍ Scribed by Yasuhiro Tomooka; Walter Imagawa; Satyabrata Nandi; Howard A. Bern

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 647 KB
• Volume: 117
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9541
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1041170303

✦ Synopsis

The effect of lithium on the growth of mammary epithelial cells from adult virgin and midpregnant BALBlc or BALBlcfC3H mice was tested in a serumfree collagen gel culture system. The serum-free medium consisted of a 1:l mixture of Ham's F12 and Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium supplemented with insulin, transferrin, cholera toxin, epidermal growth factor (EGF), and bovine serum albumin fraction V (BSA V). A multifold increase in cell number occurred during 10-12 days of culture in this medium. In doseresponse studies in which the concentration of each component of this serum-free medium was varied in turn, the addition of LiCL (10 mM) enhanced growth at most concentrations of each factor. However, LiCl could not enhance growth in t h e absence of insulin or BSA V, but could replace EGF. The optimal concentration of LiCl was 5-10 mM; higher concentrations (20-80 mM) were toxic. KCI (1-10 mM) when added to the serum-free medium slightly stimulated growth; the addition of NaCl to the medium had little effect on growth. LiCl did not enhance the growth of cells from spontaneous mammary tumors of BALBkfC3H mice.