Hybrids between normal cells,communication-deficient and communication-competent tumor cells

Summary Communication competent rat cells, communication incompetent (i.e., gap junction defective) rat tumor cells and communication competent rat tumor cells were fused in different combinations and the resultant hybrid cells were tested with regard to their growth properties and communication-competence. The ability to communicate via gap junctions was strictly inherited in a dominant fashion. Hybrids of normal cells and non-communicating tumor cells exhibited normal growth properties,i.e., the transformed phenotype was not expressed. This adds evidence to the hypothesis that the transformed growth of communication-incompetent tumor cells may be due to the loss or closure of their gap junctions.Communication-competent tumor cells behaved different when fused with normal cells in that their transformed growth was observed in each of the hybrids examined. No complementation was observed when different communication-incompetent cells or different tumor cells were fused.