Production and characterization of canine osteosarcoma cell lines that induce transplantable tumors in nude mice.

OBJECTIVE

To produce and characterize cell lines from canine primary appendicular osteosarcomas that induce transplantable tumors in athymic nude mice.

ANIMALS

57 six- to 8-week-old female athymic nude mice.

PROCEDURE

Canine primary appendicular osteosarcoma tumors were harvested and cell lines were produced. Canine osteosarcoma (COSCA)-Toby (COSCA-T; 10 mice), COSCA-Princess (COSCA-Pr; 16) or canine osteosarcoma D-17 (ATCC CCL-183; 31) cells were injected into the proximal portion of the left tibia of nude mice to evaluate tumor production from each cell line; the right tibia served as the control. Tibial measurements were taken on alternating days to evaluate tumor growth during a 6-month period. Student's t-tests were used to determine whether size of the proximal portion of the left and right tibias differed significantly during the observation period.

RESULTS

88% of mice receiving COSCA-Pr and 50% of mice receiving COSCA-T cells developed a tumor at the injection site by 9 days after implantation. The D-17 cells induced tumors in 50% of injected tibias; however, tumors were not detected for 79 days. Tumors generated from COSCA-Pr and COSCA-T cells in nude mice were histologically similar to the canine tumor from which they were developed.

CONCLUSION

New osteosarcoma cell lines that can reliably and rapidly induce transplantable tumors in nude mice were developed.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Use of cell lines will allow evaluation of new treatments of canine primary appendicular osteosarcoma in a nude mouse model.