The effects of laminin on the growth and differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells in defined media

✍ Scribed by Rizzino, Angie ;Terranova, Victor ;Rohrbach, David ;Crowley, Craig ;Rizzino, Heather

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 744 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0091-7419
• DOI: 10.1002/jss.400130212

✦ Synopsis

In this paper we have examined the growth and differentiation of the embryonal carcinoma cell line, F9, in the defined medium EM-3 at low density. We show that the growth of F9 and their differentiated cells (F9-diff) in EM-3 is strongly density dependent. At low cell densities the growth of both cell types is severely limited and most of the cells d o not survive. Although this poses a problem for working with F9 and F9-diff in EM-3, it provides a convenient assay for identifying molecules that support their growth at low density. Using this assay, we have determined that laminin, a newly isolated glycoprotein of basement membranes, significantly improves the growth and short-term survival of both F9 and F9-diff. However, addition of laminin t o EM-3 is insufficient to promote the clonal growth of these cell types. Our findings also indicate that laminin promotes the attachment of F9 and F9-diff in defined media. On the basis of our results, we propose an attachment function for laminin during the early stages of mammalian development.

Key words: embryonal carcinoma cells