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Updated: May 5, 2026
A Syngeneic Orthotopic Osteosarcoma Sprague Dawley Rat Model with Amputation to Control Metastasis Rate
Published on: May 3, 2021
Characterization of the Rat Osteosarcoma Cell Line UMR-106 by Long-Read Technologies Identifies a Large Block of
Alan F Scott1, David W Mohr1, William A Littrell1
1Genetic Resources Core Facility, Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe St., 1034 Blalock, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA.
Background/Objectives:
The rat osteosarcoma cell line UMR-106 is widely used for the study of bone cancer biology but it has not been well characterized with modern genomic methods.
Methods:
To better understand the biology of UMR-106 cells we used a combination of optical genome mapping (OGM), long-read sequencing nanopore sequencing and RNA sequencing.The UMR-106 genome was compared to a strain-matched Sprague-Dawley rat for variants associated with human osteosarcoma while expression data were contrasted with a public osteoblast dataset.
Results:
Using the COSMIC database to identify the most affected genes in human osteosarcomas we found somatic mutations in Tp53 and H3f3a. OGM identified a relatively small number of differences between the cell line and a strain-matched control animal but did detect a ~45 Mb block of amplification that included Myc on chromosome 7 which was confirmed by long-read sequencing. The amplified region showed several blocks of non-contiguous rearranged sequence implying complex rearrangements during their formation and included 14 genes reported as biomarkers in human osteosarcoma, many of which also showed increased transcription. A comparison of 5mC methylation from the nanopore reads of tumor and control samples identified genes with distinct differences including the OS marker Cdkn2a.
Conclusions:
This dataset illustrates the value of long DNA methods for the characterization of cell lines and how inter-species analysis can inform us about the genetic nature underlying mutations that underpin specific tumor types. The data should be a valuable resource for investigators studying osteosarcoma, in general, and specifically the UMR-106 model.
