Invasiveness of malignant ST/A mouse lung cells in vitro

ST/A mouse lung cells underwent apparently spontaneous malignant alteration in tissue culture. We have compared the capacity of these cells to form malignant tumours in syngeneic animals with their behaviour in vitro. ST-L1, ST-L22, and ST-L104 cells were malignant, whilst ST-L108 and ST-L109 cells were not. ST-L1 and ST-L22 cells showed anchorage-dependence of growth, whilst ST-L104, ST-L108 and ST-L109 cells did not. ST-L22, ST-L104, ST-L108 and ST-L109 performed directional migration from a spheroid explanted on glass. This capacity was lost in ST-L1 cells, which produced so-called round-cell transformants. All but ST-L108 cells produced type C viral particles. The tumorigenic cell lines ST-L1, ST-L22 and ST-L104 invaded fragments of embryonic chick heart in three-dimensional culture, whereas the non-tumorigenic ST-L108 and ST-L109 cells did not. Furthermore, the histology of ST-L cells invading in three-dimensional culture resembled that of the invasive sarcomas which they produced in vivo. The present observations with ST-L cells confirm that invasiveness in three-dimensional culture is a reliable criterion for malignant of tissue culture lines.