Transplantation of adenomatous polyps, normal colonic mucosa and adenocarcinoma of colon into athymic mice.

Fragments of benign colonic adenomatous polyps of man, adenocarcinoma of the colon of man, and normal colonic mucosa of man and rodent were transplanted under the kidney capsule of athymic mice. Benign human adenomatous cells survived for periods of up to 28 days, normal rodent colonic epithelial cells for 45 days and colonic carcinoma cells for 43 days. This was demonstrated by morphologic criteria, and by the incorporation of tritiated thymidine into DNA of the epithelial cells. The transplantation technique can supplement organ culture methods for the maintenance of adenomatous tissue derived from human colonic mucosa, in order to facilitate studies of growth characteristics and transformation of the cells.