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

Abstract

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.