Chemically induced transplantable malignant fibrous histiocytoma of the rat. Analyses with immunohistochemistry, immunoelectron microscopy and [3H]thymidine autoradiography.

Malignant fibrous histiocytoma was produced in rats by injection of 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene into their knee joints. The original tumors consisted mainly of fibroblast-like cells and histiocyte-like cells, often intermixed with bizarre giant cells, and they frequently showed the storiform-pleomorphic pattern. By immunohistochemistry, anti-rat macrophage monoclonal antibodies, TRPM-3, RM-1, and Ki-M2R, and anti-rat leukocyte common antigen reacted to the histiocyte-like cells but not to the fibroblast-like cells. By the single cell cloning method, we established six tumor cell lines, none of which reacted with the anti-rat macrophage monoclonal antibodies, possessed any Fc receptors, or conducted immune phagocytosis and Latex particle phagocytosis. The ultrastructure of the cloned tumor cells resembled that of long-term cultured dermal fibroblasts. Collagen production by the tumor cells was demonstrated immunohistochemically with a monoclonal antibody for type I collagen. Inoculation of the cloned tumor cells into rats produced tumors with the histology of malignant fibrous histiocytoma and induced prominent macrophage infiltration. In the rat tumors produced by the inoculation of [3H]thymidine labeled cells, no reactivity of tumor cells with the anti-rat macrophage monoclonal antibodies was observed. Transplantation of the cultured rat tumor cells into nude mice produced tumors similar in histology to the original rat malignant fibrous histiocytoma. Tumor cells in nude mice induced marked macrophage infiltration as detected by immunohistochemistry with the anti-mouse macrophage monoclonal antibody F4/80. No differentiation of tumor cells into macrophages was detected, since no cells were stained with biotinylated anti-rat macrophage monoclonal antibody TRPM-3. By the flash labeling method with [3H]thymidine, infiltrating macrophages in the nude mouse tumors were proved to derive from the bone marrow of the host animals. These results indicate a possible experimental reproduction of malignant fibrous histiocytoma by proliferation of malignant fibroblasts or their related cells in combination with macrophage infiltration.