COMPARISON OF THE METASTATIC PROPERTIES OF B-16 MELANOMA CLONES ISOLATED FROM CULTURED-CELL LINES, SUBCUTANEOUS TUMORS, AND INDIVIDUAL LUNG METASTASES

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  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 42  (7) , 2770-2778
Abstract
Tumors produced by s.c. injection of uncloned B16 mouse melanoma cell lines contain clonal tumor cell subpopulations with widely differing metastatic properties, including clones that are nonmetastatic. Similar metastatic heterogeneity exists in clones isolated from the same cell lines cultured in vitro. In B16 melanoma sublines (B16-BL6, B16-BV8, and B16-BP8) selected for enhanced invasive and metastatic behavior, the proportion of clones with high metastatic capacity is increased relative to the parent cell line. The cellular composition of metastases produced by s.c. or i.v. injection of the uncloned parent cell line was also examined. Some metastatic properties (intralesional clonal homogeneity). The range of clonal diversity in heterogeneous metastases is, however, substantially less than in the parent line. The number of metastases yielding clones with heterogeneous metastatic phenotypes is higher for spontaneous metastases arising from s.c. tumors than in experimental metastases produced by i.v. injection of single-cell suspensions. Studies using B16 cells bearing specific biochemical markers indicate that clonally homogeneous metastases are of monoclonal origin and that metastases populated by clones with heterogeneous metastatic phenotypes are of polyclonal origin.