Some biological characteristics of transplantable lines of mouse adenocarcinomas of the colon.

During a 5-year period colon tumors induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride treatment in NMRI mice were transplanted sc into isologous mice to obtain transplantable tumor lines that might serve as experimental models for human colon cancer. The resultant 17 serially transplantable tumor lines were adenocarcinomas varying in degree of differentiation and mucin production. Two of the lines passaged for 5 years and used in chemotherapy studies have shown histologic progression toward dedifferentiation with concomitant acceleration of growth rate.