Abstract
We have introduced a human gastrin-releasing peptide receptor expression vector into an immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell normally unresponsive to the ligand bombesin. Successfully transfected cells express specific binding sites at a density similar to that found at the surface of human lung cancer cells and show an elevation of intracellular calcium concentration in response to bombesin. We found that cellular strains expressing the receptor showed a growth stimulation in response to bombesin in proportion to cell surface receptor density. We conclude that expression of bombesin receptors contributes to the growth potential of human bronchial epithelial cells.
Supported in part by a grant from the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Graduate Studies, McGill University, and the Fast Bequest for Oncology at the Montreal General Hospital. J. V. is a scholar of the Medical Research Council of Canada. This work was presented in part at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, March 18–22, 1995, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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