Tissue culture of osteogenic sarcoma in rats, induced by radioactive phosphorus P-32 and the effect of the anti-cancerous agents on these tumor cells under tissue culture

Small pieces of osteogenic sarcoma, induced into albino rats of the C.F. Wistar strain by injection of radioactive phosphorus 32P, were cultured in mixtures of Eagle's minimum essential medium and 20% calf serum. The tumor cells cultured in this way were transplanted into the subcutaneous tissue or the intraabdominal cavity to healthy albino rats. The effect of the anticancerous agents was evaluated by the decrease of nucleic acid composition in these cultured tumor cells. As anti-cancerous agents, cyclophosphamide (CPA), mitomycin C(MMC), and 5-fluorouracil(5-FU) were put into contact with the tumor cells in cultures for two hours under the following dilutions: CPA; 10-6, 10-5, 10-4 g/ml. MMC; 2 x 10-8, 2 x 10-7, 2 x 10-6 g/ml. 5-FU; 2 x 10-6, 2 x 10-5, 2 x 10-4 g/ml. The results are as follows: Three of the seven osteogenic sarcomas in rats were successfully cultured, one of them through more than eighteen generations. After about five hundred thousand cultured cells had been transplanted into the subcutaneous tissues or abdominal cavities of rats, tumors grew in all of them. The histological findings of the tumors in the second generation were quite similar to those of the original tumor. The same process was repeated three times and the tumor showed histogical findings similar to those of the original ones. The capability of nucleic acid synthesis in these cells was decreased at twenty fours after CPA contact and at forty eight hours after MMC. (J.P.N.)