SUMMARY.-The histological structure of 58 primary tumours derived from spontaneously transformed tissue culture cell lines from embryonic (14-16 days), young (3-20 days) and old (28-34 months) C3H and C57 mice is described. Although the cell lines were derived from a number of different organs the tumours were similar in morphology. The pattern was mixed, with " fibrosarcomatous ", " myxoid ", " epithelioid " and giant cell areas. The tumours resemble some types of haemangiopericytoma.ALTHOUGH spontaneous neoplastic transformation in vitro has been studied by many workers there have been relatively few detailed studies on the nature of the tumours developing after implantation of transformed cells into syngeneic mice. In most cases these have been classified as " fibrosarcomas " (see e.g. Nettleship et al., 1943;Evans et al., 1964;Cornell, 1969). The purpose of this paper is to describe the morphology of such tumours which arose from cell lines established from a number of different organs from young and old C57 and C3H mice. The establishment of the cell lines and the ultrastructural morphology of the tissue culture cells have been described in earlier papers (Franks and Henzell, 1970;Franks and Wilson, 1970). The histochemistry, enzyme biochemistry and ultrastructure of the tumours will be described in a later paper.
MATERIAL AND METHODSNineteen tumour-producing cell lines were established from embryo (13-18 days), young (3-20 days) and old (28-34 months) C3H and C57BL at Icrf mice. Details of the tissue culture methods used for the young and old mice are described in an earlier paper (Franks and Henzell, 1970). The embryo lines were established by Dr. S. Lan from whole embryos, using methods described by Todaro and Green (1963). The other lines were derived from the following organs-kidney, bladder, lung, tongue, heart, prostate, brain, spinal cord and nerve. The tissue culture cells were removed from their containers by the method by which they were usually transferred, i.e. trypsinisation or scraping, and centrifuged. The pellet was resuspended in about 0-6 ml. of tissue culture medium. Routinely 0-2 ml. of the suspension was injected subcutaneously into syngeneic hosts 3-6 months old. Approximately 3 x 106 cells were inoculated into each mouse. Two of the tumours were implanted intraperitoneally and two intraocularly, using the method of Grobstein (1950). In all 17 primary tumours were established from different