[Morphological study of human thyroid papillary carcinoma cells in collagen gel culture].

Human thyroid papillary carcinoma cells (surgical materials) were cultured in a monolayer or a collagen gel system. In the monolayer culture, degeneration and necrosis of cancer cells were observed after 10 days of culture. In the collagen gel culture, degenerative necrosis were observed 14 days culture. In histopathological observation monolayer cells proliferated in pavement-like form without forming any colony. On the contrary, collagen gel culture cells formed branching-type colonies and spheroid-type colonies. Those results suggested that papillary carcinoma cells can be cultured more like in vivo in collagen gel culture than monolayer culture.