Comparison of proto oncogene expression in seven primate fibroblast cultures.

In an interspecies comparison of seven primate species, the expression of the erbB proto oncogene was found to be higher in fibroblasts derived from three relatively long-lived species, the human, gorilla, and chimpanzee than in cells from the orangutan, pygmy chimpanzee, squirrel monkey, or red-bellied tamarin. No significant difference was found in the expression of the ras-K, myc, or src proto oncogenes. The difference would not seem to be the result of age differences of the donor animals as we found little variation in the expression of the four proto oncogenes in human fibroblasts derived from donors ranging in age from newborn to 70 years old. In addition, we found little change in expression of the proto oncogenes during long term in vitro culturing, indicating that in vitro age of the individual cultures was not a significant factor in our results.