Studies of the morphology and tumorigenicity of experimental brain tumours in tissue culture.

Brain tumours induced transplacentally in BD-IX rats by a single dose of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea have been successfully grown in tissue culture. These tumours were malignant pleomorphic gliomas. The cultured cells retained their glial morphology both in vitro and on reinjection into syngeneic hosts: astrocytes became the predominant cell type. The ability of the cells to form tumours increased with time in culture as reflected both in the decreased latency of the tumours and in the increased ability of the cells to grow in semi-solid medium.