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Updated: Apr 17, 2026
Isolation and Characterization of Tumor-initiating Cells from Sarcoma Patient-derived Xenografts
Published on: June 13, 2019
Characterization of a novel radiation-induced sarcoma cell line
Julie Lang1, Weizhu Zhu, Brandon Nokes
1Department of Surgery and Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Background:
Radiation-induced sarcoma (RIS) is a potential complication of cancer treatment. No widely available cell line models exist to facilitate studies of RIS.
Methods:
We derived a spontaneously immortalized primary human cell line, UACC-SARC1, from a RIS.
Results:
Short tandem repeat (STR) profiling of UACC-SARC1 was virtually identical to its parental tumor. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of the tumor and immunocytochemistry (ICC) analysis of UACC-SARC1 revealed shared expression of vimentin, osteonectin, CD68, Ki67 and PTEN but tumor-restricted expression of the histiocyte markers α1-antitrypsin and α1-antichymotrypsin. Karyotyping of the tumor demonstrated aneuploidy. Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) provided direct genetic comparison between the tumor and UACC-SARC1. Sequencing of 740 mutation hotspots revealed no mutations in UACC-SARC1 nor in the tumor. NOD/SCID gamma mouse xenografts demonstrated tumor formation and metastasis. Clonogenicity assays demonstrated that 90% of single cells produced viable colonies. NOD/SCID gamma mice produced useful patient-derived xenografts for orthotopic or metastatic models.
Conclusion:
Our novel RIS strain constitutes a useful tool for pre-clinical studies of this rare, aggressive disease. UACC-SARC1 is an aneuploid cell line with complex genomics lacking common oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes as drivers of its biology. The UACC-SARC1 cell line will enable further studies of the drivers of RIS.
