[Isolation and characterization of clonal cell lines with different metastatic capacity from hepato-carcinoma in...

By means of soft agar colonization and limiting dilution, 5 clonal cells with different metastatic capacity, [one with high metastatic rate (78.6-89.4%), three moderate (33.3-66.6%) and one low (15-15.4%)], were separated from Hca-F25/L cell line. Their common features were: All clones metastasize to lymphatic system except a small percentage (1.88%) associated with lung metastasis; five clones as well as their parents all reacted with Keratin monoclonal antibody (HK2), which indicated the epithelial character with poor differentiation; Cells of each clone have highly identical karyotype. Five clone lines have similar marker chromosomes (M1, M2, M3, M4) with different stem line karyotypes. We also found different features of five cell lines in pathomorphological indicators and cell electrophoresis rate. Our results indicated that the Hca-F25/L strain is heterogeneous in phenotype and karyotype.