Breast-carcinoma cell-lines with metastatic potential in mice

We established and characterized three human breast carcinoma cell lines (two with metastatic potential) by in vivo-in vitro propagation of tumor tissues. Tissues were processed in culture as i) direct explants (n = 185); ii) cell suspensions obtained after enzymic digestion (n = 29); or iii) explants of xenografts established in vivo (n = 18). Tissues processed as explants or cell suspensions generated no viable cell lines. However, three cell lines (MAXF-401, MAXF-583 and OHSTMAM-4) were established from xenografts. All three showed characteristic features of human breast tumor tissue. All were tumorigenic in mice and MAXF-401 and MAXF-583 showed frequent distant metastasis following s.c. transplantation. All three overexpressed EGFR, p53 and c-erbB2 proteins.