[Independence from the substrate of multiplication in nonclonal and clonal tumor cell populations]

Experiments were made with sarcoma PS-103 cells cultured in vitro. The sarcoma was induced by implantation of a plastic plate into CBA mice. Clonal analysis of the cell culture demonstrated that 1) all 3 clones isolated from substrate (SB) grew in 1.2% methyl cellulose (MC) at the same efficiency as parental cells; 2) all 5 clones isolated from MC formed in a semi-solid medium 10-100-fold more colonies than PS-103. During the subcloning of one of PS-103 clones in solid substrate and in MC, it turned out that the majority of MC and SB subclones had the plating efficiency in MC similar to that in PS-103. Apparently, the PS-103 population contains clones with different degrees of anchorage independence.