Establishment and characterization of a new highly metastatic human osteosarcoma cell line derived from Saos2

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignancy of bone in adolescents and young adults. There is a shortage of tumorigenic and highly metastatic human osteosarcoma cell lines that can be used for metastasis study. Here we establish and characterize a highly metastatic human osteosarcoma cell line that is derived from Saos2 cell line based on bioluminescence. The occasional pulmonary metastatic cells developed from Saos2 were isolated, harvested, characterized and named Saos2-l. The parental Saos2 and Saos2-l cells were further characterized both in vitro and in vivo. Results showed that Saos2-l cells demonstrated increased cell adhesion, migration and invasion compared to the parental Saos2 cells. Conversely, Saos2-l cells grew at a slightly slower rate than that of the parental cells. When injected into nude mice, Saos2-l cells had a greater increase in developing pulmonary metastases compared to the parental Saos2 cells. Further transcriptional profiling analysis revealed that some gene expression were up-regulated or down-regulated in the highly metastatic Saos2-l cells, indicating possible influencing factors of metastasis. Thus, we have established and characterized a highly metastatic human osteosarcoma cell line that should serve as a valuable tool for future investigations on the pathogenesis, metastasis and potential treatments of human osteosarcoma.