SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency) mice as a new system to investigate metastasis of human tumors.

In severe combined immunodeficiency (scid) mice which are deficient in T and B cell functions, human yolk sac tumor (YST-2) grew rapidly to enormous sizes in all of the animals after both subcutaneous and intraperitoneal transplantation, while only half of the subcutaneous and none of the intraperitoneal transplants were accepted in usual athymic nude mice. Furthermore, transplanted tumors metastasized spontaneously to distant organs such as lung, liver, kidney, pancreas, and spleen in scid mice, while metastases were not found in athymic nude mice. Similar results were observed in scid mice and scid-nude (streaker) double mutant mice with human classic (typical) seminoma which has been neither transplantable nor metastatic in athymic nude mice. Thus, scid mice provide an invaluable experimental system to investigate the mechanism of metastasis which is the most important and life-threatening problem in cancer patients.