The Chinese Hamster Ovarian cells CHOK1 are one of the most extensively used cells for the evaluation of gene expression and toxicology. However, these cells are frequently used for biomedical research without consideration of their cytogenetic characteristics. Therefore, we carried out to investigate the karyologic profiles, the frequency and type of chromosome aberration, and the distribution of telomeric DNA on chromosomes of the CHOK1 cells. The GTGbanding and fluorescence in situ hybridization on CHOK1 cells were performed to characterize the karyotype and the distribution of telomeric DNA. The present study revealed that the chromosome modal number of CHOK1 cells was 2n=20; eight chromosomes appeared to be identical with those of the normal Chinese hamster, whereas the remaining 12 chromosomes were shown to be translocated, deleted, inversed, or rearranged from Chinese hamster chromosomes. The telomeric DNA on CHOK1 chromosomes was intensively distributed at the centromeres rather than the ends of chromosomes. In addition, three chromosomes had interstitial telomeres and one marker chromosome entirely consisted of telomeric DNAs. The frequency and type of chromosome aberrations in CHOK1 cells were examined. Of the 822 metaphase spreads, 68 (8.3%) cells resulted in chromosome aberrations of which the chromosome breakage was the most frequently occurred.

Equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) is a unique molecule that elicits the response characteristics of both follicle- stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) in other species. Previous studies from this laboratory had demonstrated that recombinant eCG (rec-eCG) from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells exhibited both FSH- and LH-like activity in rat granulosa and Leydig cells. In this study, we analyzed receptor internalization through rec-eCGs, wild type eCG (eCGβ/α) and mutant eCG (eCGβ/αΔ56) with an N-linked oligosaccharide at Asn56 of the α-subunit. Both the rec-eCGs were obtained from CHO-K1 cells. The agonist activation of receptors was analyzed by measuring stimulation time and concentrations of rec-eCGs. Internalization values in the stably selected rat follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (rFSHR) and rat luteinizing/ chorionic gonadotropin receptor (rLH/CGR) were highest at 50 min after stimulation with 10 ng of rec-eCGβ/α. The dose-dependent response was highest when 10 ng of rec-eCGβ/α was used. The deglycosylated eCGβ/αΔ56 mutant did not enhance the agonist-stimulated internalization. We concluded that the state of activation of rFSHR and rLH/CGR could be modulated through agonist-stimulated internalization. Our results suggested that the eLH/CGRs are mostly internalized within 60 min by agonist-stimulation by rec-eCG. We also suggested that the lack of responsiveness of the deglycosylated eCGβ/ αΔ56 was likely because the site of glycosylation played a pivotal role in agonist-stimulated internalization in cells expressing rFSHR and rLH/CGR.