Creation of a stable mammary tumor cell line that maintains fertility-cycle tumor biology of the parent tumor.

A mammary tumor cell line, designated MTCL, was successfully established from a mouse primary mammary tumor (MTP). The MTCL cells retain cytokeratin and both estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in vitro. In vitro exposure of MTCL cells to progesterone causes a decrease in the cellular (3)H-thymidine uptake, indicating an inhibition by progesterone on MTCL cellular deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis, whereas exposure of the cells to a high dose of estrogen (15 pg/ml) for 48 h causes an increase of (3)H-thymidine uptake. We inoculated both MTP or MTCL tumor cells into normal cycling female C(3)HeB/FeJ mice and demonstrated that the post-resection metastatic recurrence of MTCL tumors, like the original MTP tumors, depends on the time of tumor resection within the mouse estrous-cycle stage. Both MTCL and MTP tumors have similar histological appearances with the exception of less extensive tumor necrosis and higher vascularity in MTCL tumors. Equivalent levels of sex hormone receptors (ER alpha, ER beta, and PR), epithelial growth hormone receptors (Her2/neu, EGFR1), tumor suppressors (BRCA1, P53), and cell apoptosis-relevant protein (bcl-xl) were found in these in vivo tumors by immunohistochemistry. Cyclin E protein, however, was significantly higher in MTP tumors compared with MTCL tumors. Our results indicate that MTCL cells retain many of the biologic features of the original MTP primary tumor cells, and to our knowledge, it is the first in vitro cell line that has been shown to maintain the estrous-cycle dependence of in vivo cancer metastasis.