Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 184 (3)

Establishment and Characterization of a Murine Cell-Line Derived from Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma of A/Jackson Mouse

ITARU WATANABE, NAOMI KUROSAWA1 and TETSURO NISHIHIRA1

Division of Surgery and Clinicopathological Laboratory, NTT Tohoku Teishin Hospital, Sendai 984-0042, and 1The Second Department of Surgery, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai 980-8574

  • A hard mass incidentally found in the right buttock of an elderly male A/J mouse was morphologically consistent with malignant fibrous histiocytoma; storiform-pleomorphic subtype. Diced pieces or suspensions of the tumor tissue were readily transplantable subcutaneously in the flank of mice of the strain. The tumor-bearing mice died mostly of rupture of the tumor into the thorax or abdomen within 4 weeks. Pulmonary and splenic metastasis were recognized only in a mouse which survived more than 10 weeks. A new cell-line was established from the original tumor without necessary cloning and was maintained in MEM (minimum essential medium) supplemented with 10% FCS for 6 months under 22 passages. Frozen stocks were then made, from which the recovery of the cells was successful. The cell growth, requiring about 20 hours for doubling of population, was a mixture of plump or stellate histiocytic cells and fibroblastic ones, both of which contained lipid droplets and retained phagocytic activity. The cell-line was designated as murine sarcoma Sendai (MuSS). Morphological versatility of the cultured cells suggested the origin of the neoplasm from multipotential, primitive mesenchymal cells.
    Key words--- malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH); A/Jackson (A/J) mouse; continuous cell-line; phagocytosis; murine sarcoma Sendai (MuSS)
    © 1998 Tohoku University Medical Press


    Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1998, 184, 173-187
    Address for reprints: Itaru Watanabe, M.D., Yasuda Hospital, 2-2-40 Odawara, Miyagino-ku, Sendai 983-0803, Japan.


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