The gross pathology and histological features of tumours produced by inoculation of human cell lines into immune‐deprived mice

Abstract

Tumours were raised in both congenitally athymic ('nude') Swiss mice and in neonatally thymectomized, Ara-C-protected, whole-body irradiated CBA mice by subcutaneous inoculation of cells from a variety of cultured human lines. In both types of animal, tumours tended to grow massively at the site of inoculation, with some infiltration of adjacent tissues but only rarely with evidence of metastatic spread. Tumours derived from Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) lines or from EB virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) were all classified as high grade malignant lymphomas with a limited range of appearances on conventional histological examination. In the material studied there were no consistent features distinguishing BL-derived from LCL-derived tumours. Cell lines originating from other haematopoietic malignancies tended to produce tumours interpreted as immunoblastic lymphomas though there were distinctive characteristics in some cases, such as highly convoluted or pleomorphic nuclei in the cells of some tumours derived from T-cell leukaemia lines and plasmacytoid differentiation in tumours originating from myeloma lines. Malignant cell lines of epithelial origin gave rise to tumours with the histological appearances of anaplastic carcinomas readily distinguishable from the high grade lymphomas produced by haematopoietic cells.

Gene expression in oestrogen-dependent human breast cancer xenograft tumours

“…This model therefore yields a large renewable supply of tumour material passaged in vivo and permits the study of tumours during hormonal manipulation. These MCF-7 tumours were clearly adenocarcinomata, with necrosis in only the larger tumours as in nude mice and metastasis, as previously noted, a rare event (Busuttil et al, 1986). As in nude mice, oestrogen supplementation is a prerequisite for MCF-7 tumour growth (Shafie & Grantham, 1981;Osborne et al, 1985;Gottardis et al, 1988).…”

“…Recent work on experimental human breast tumours in vivo has made use, almost exclusively, of congenitally athymic ('nude') mice Brunner et al, 1989). We have previously reported the growth of a range of human tumours in thymectomised, irradiated mice (Busuttil et al, 1986) which have advantages in ease of husbandry and cost (Steel et al, 1978;Morten et al, 1984;Hay et al, 1985). We report here the characterization of an oestrogenresponsive tumour derived from the MCF-7 human breast carcinoma cell line grown in vivo in female thymectomised and irradiated CBA mice.…”

Influence of regional location of the inoculation site and dietary fat on the pathology of MDA-MB-435 human breast cancer cell-derived tumors grown in nude mice

“…Shafie and Liotta [5] reported that the estrogen-dependent MCF-7 cell line metastasized from an inguinal s.c. injection site to the lungs, liver or spleen in 40-60% of estradiol-supplemented female nude mice, but subsequent attempts have produced only a very occasional lung metastasis, and none to other organs [6,7,16]. Ozzello and Sorbat [6] examined three human breast cancer cell lines in addition to MCF-7 cells.…”

“…Several investigators have described attempts to obtain systemic metastases from human breast cancer cell lines [5][6][7][8], but of those generally available only the estrogen receptor negative MDA-MB-435 line has been found to consistently produce metastases to the lungs. Price et al [8] first reported that pulmonary metastasis had occurred in 80-100% of mice when they were autopsied 16-20 weeks after the inoculation of MDA-MB-435 cells into a thoracic mammary fat * To whom correspondence should be addressed.…”

Hras1‐selected, chromosome‐mediated transformants vary in phenotype in vitro and tumorigenic potential in vivo

“…In all 3 cases, the appearances are those of highly malignant spindlecell sarcomas with abundant mitoses. The tissue morphology is quite distinct from that seen in tumours of epithelial or of lymphoid origin (Busuttil et al, 1986). There are some characteristic differences between tumows from different transformants.…”