Analysis of the tumor suppressor activity of the K-rev-1 gene in human tumor cell lines.

Overexpression of the human K-rev-1 gene in v-Ki-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells has been reported to result in the reversal of transformation and tumor suppression. To address whether human K-rev-1 is a tumor suppressor gene of human tumor cells, we have systematically transfected epitope-tagged wild-type or activated mutant K-rev-1 complementary DNA expression vectors into a series human tumor cell lines that express an activated ras oncogene, namely HT1080, EJ, and SW480. Using the epitope-tag-specific monoclonal antibody, it is shown that the K-rev-1 protein localizes to the medial/trans-Golgi network. Ectopic expression of the wild-type or activated mutant K-rev-1 protein did not significantly affect the morphology or in vitro growth of any clones. Furthermore, all clones expressing the wild-type or activated mutant K-rev-1 protein were tumorigenic. Western blot analysis of tumor reconstitutes demonstrated that there was no decrease or loss of introduced K-rev-1 protein expression. The results in the present study demonstrate that expression of K-rev-1 does not reverse the transformed phenotype or significantly affect the tumorigenic phenotype of human tumor cell lines that express endogenous ras oncogenes.