THE AIMS/GRXVIII CELL-LINE - SPONTANEOUS TRANSFORMATION OF HORMONALLY INDUCED PRIMARY-CELLS DERIVED FROM GOAT OVARIAN GRANULOSA

AIMS/GRXVIII is one of the cell lines developed in our laboratory from goat ovarian granulosa cells by luteinizing hormone (LH) stress. Unlike other cell lines in the AIMS/GR series which were contact-inhibited and non-tumorigenic, this one was 'spontaneously' transformed during passage 14 with a doubling time of 20 h. The morphology changed from a spindle shape to epithelial-like. Cultures lost contact inhibition and presented extensive mitotic and chromosomal abnormalities. The cultures secreted progesterone even without LH support after passage 8. The cells developed small tumours of luteal morphology in hamster cheek pouches, though they failed to form colonies in soft agar gel. This is a functional cell line and should be useful in understanding various processes in cell biology like function, signal transduction and mechanisms of cell transformation.