Neoplastic differentiation: Interaction of simian virus 40 and polyoma virus with murine teratocarcinoma cells in vitro

The host-virus interactions of Simian virus 40 (SV40) and polyoma virus (Py) with cell lines established from a teratocarcinoma were studied. The cells utilized in this study were the multipotential stem cell of the teratocarcinoma, embryonal carcinoma, and differentiated cells derived from embryonal carcinoma. Several lines of differentiated cells were established in vitro which included parietal yolk sac, epithelial, and spindle cell types. Embryonal carcinoma cells are not susceptible to infection by either SV40 or Py virus. However, differentiated cells are susceptible to infection by these viruses. The differentiated cells are permissive for Py virus replication and nonpermissive for SV40. Several continuously growing cell lines have been established from the SV40 infected cultures which express T antigen in 100% of the cells. The results indicate that undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma cells and their differentiated progeny respond quite differently to challenge with these two oncogenic DNA viruses.