[Biological stabilities and identification of a highly metastatic subpopulation from a human osteosarcoma cell line].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the biological stabilities and the identification of a human highly metastatic osteosarcoma subpopulation. METHODS: Tumor pieces of the cell were inoculated into nude mice orthotopically. Lung node metastatic foci were obtained by culturing, the procedure was repeated for 3 cycles. Changes were observed in intra-tibial tumor growth, pulmonary metastatic rate in vivo, morphological characteristics, expressions of BMP, vimentin, actin, NEC and karyotype analyses of every passage in vitro. RESULTS: The intra-tibial tumor growth rates were 100%, the proliferation abilities were stable, and the pulmonary metastatic rates were higher than 80%. The expressions of BMP, vimentin, actin were positive, but the expression of NSE was negative. Its morphological characteristics the antigen-positive substances and karyotype were similar to those observed in human osteosarcoma. CONCLUSION: SOSP-M1 with very stable biological characteristics is a good model for the study of human osteosarcoma.