Karyotypic analyses of metastatic and non-metastatic mouse tumor cells by g-and c-banding

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cytogenetic studies using G‐ and C‐banding were performed in order to compare non‐metastasizing BWO mouse thymoma cells with their metastatic BW‐IS‐Li and BW‐O‐Lil variants. BW‐IS‐Li and BW‐O‐Lil cells were obtained from liver metastases generated respectively after intra‐splenic or intravenous inoculation of mice with BWO cells. BW‐O‐Lil cells contained normal chromosomes 4 and 18 which were never found in BWO or BW‐IS‐Li cells. As they also contained several markers common to the BWO parental cell line, our data provide definite evidence that the BW‐O‐Lil cell line results from spontaneous in vivo cell fusion between a BWO cell and a normal host cell. Chromosome 3 was also shown to be “rearrangement‐prone” and was less represented among metastatic cell variants. These variants also lack a C‐band‐deficient marker chromosome which was found in most of the BWO cells. However, as many complex chromosome rearrangements were found in all 3 cell lines, at least some chromosomal material may be present in a hidden form. We were not able in this particular cell system to link the presence or absence of a single chromosome, chromosome fragment or rearrangement to the acquisition or expression of metastatic properties.