Quantitative flow cytometry of mouse mammary tumor virus envelope glycoprotein (gp52): alternative measures of hormone-mediated change in a viral cell surface antigen.

An immunofluorescence procedure with C3H mouse mammary tumor cells (Mm5mt/cl) has incorporated flow cytometry to provide a fluorescence-based measurement of changes in the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) cell surface glycoprotein (gp52). A comparison of mean channel fluorescence intensity (delta mean) of cell populations stained with immune sera and NRS permitted a gp52-specific signal to be measured for controls and cells treated with 10(-6) M dexamethasone (Dex). Three different methods have been developed to quantitatively compare gp52-related fluorescence on control and hormone-treated cells. First, delta mean, measured as a gp52-specific difference in channel number was 169-209 for control cells and 299-341 for Dex-treated cells. These fluorescence measurements with 4 different sera demonstrated gp52-specific increases due to Dex treatment of 141, 130, 143, and 115 channels. A second method of gp52 quantitation determined the percentage shift in staining populations over NRS and specified channel intensity markers. Dex treatment resulted in a 6.9 to 32.4% shift over channel 508 (NRS marker) and a more marked shift of 45.5 to 49.2% over channel 676 (control cell marker). A third methodology utilized fluorescein bead standards to calculate molecules of equivalent soluble fluorescein (MESF). These MESF determinations permitted hormonal effects to be measured as fold increases over controls. Dex induction of gp52 for C3H and GR mammary tumor cells ranged from 1.5 to 9.1 fold increases. Alternative steroid treatments and antibody directed against the internal cytoplasmic MMTV P27 provided negative controls for measurements of changing gp52 levels.