Purity and transplantation properties of tumor cell suspensions

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Abstract
Cell debris is inevitably produced by the mechanical and enzymatic procedures used to dissociate solid tumors. We investigated the influence of such debris on the i.v. and s.c. transplantability of B16 melanoma cells. Cell suspensions were centrifuged on a Percoli cushion to remove the debris, and the purified preparations were compared to untreated control suspensions. The i.v. injection of a massive dose (106 cells) of unpurified cells killed the animals within a few minutes, while the same amount of purified cells left the animals unaffected. When 5×105 cells were given, animals receiving purified cell suspensions had more extrapulmonary tumors at their time of death than those given unpurified cells. However, with a lower cell dose, 2×104 cells, there were no such differences in tumor incidence or distribution.