The neurula stage mouse embryo in control of neuroblastoma.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the neurula stage mouse embryo can regulate tumor formation of C-1300-3 neuroblastoma cells. Five neuroblastoma cells were injected into the second somite of neurula stage embryos, and their ability to form tumors was tested, 24 hr later, by transplanting the portion of the embryo containing the cancer cells into the testes of adult mice. Only one-third the number of tumors was obtained in comparison with controls in which (i) five neuroblastoma cells were injected into blocks of liver tissue that were then transplanted into the testes of adult animals or (ii) five C-1300-3 neuroblastoma cells were injected directly into the testes. When five C-1300-3 cells were injected into somites, which had been dissected from embryos, and the injected somites were placed in animals, significantly fewer tumors were obtained in relationship with controls. Although it is not known whether the neuroblastoma cells are induced to differentiate or are killed by the embryonic tissue, the effect appeared to be specific because the tumor-forming ability of L1210 leukemia, B-16 melanoma, embryonal carcinoma 247, and a parietal yolk sac carcinoma was unaffected by somites.