Characterization of a new murine tumor variant with different in vivo behavior selected by its adhesive properties

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the selection by adhesion to fibronectin (FN) also selects for cells with different tumorigenic and metastatic abilities. M3 murine mammary adenocarcinoma cells with moderate metastatic potential were seeded on FN-coated plastic substrates. Non-adherent cells were removed at 30 min, and the adherent ones were expanded in monolayer culture. Selected tumor cells were then harvested and inoculated sc into syngeneic mice. The selection procedure was repeated three times. After the third cycle, tumors were further maintained by sc trocar transplantation, and the variant obtained was called M3Ad. Although the in vitro selection was adhesion to FN substrate, the in vitro adhesion behavior of the variant M3Ad was identical to that of the parental tumor M3. However, the cytogenetic profile and the in vivo behavior indicated that M3Ad differed from M3. The distribution of the chromosome number of M3Ad cells revealed a lower mode and mean than of M3 cells. Moreover, the M3Ad variant exhibited a shorter latency, a higher growth rate and a lower incidence of spontaneous lung metastases. However, it produced significantly more and larger lung colonies than M3 after iv injection.