Preservation of chromosome and DNA characteristics of human colorectal adenocarcinomas after passage in nude mice.

Twenty-seven human colorectal adenocarcinomas were implanted s.c. into nude mice. A comparative study of chromosomes and DNA between fresh tumor (FT) and xenografted tumor cells (XT) could be performed in 9 cases. Losses or deletions were consistently found in FTs as well as in XTs, particularly on chromosomes 17 and/or 18. This was correlated with loss of heterozygosity for these chromosomes. Comparison between corresponding FT and XT karyotypes showed great similarities. However, the tendency toward polyploidization, which exists in FTs, appeared to be more pronounced in XTs. Passage in nude mice makes it possible to repeat cytogenetic analyses in order to obtained interpretable metaphases. Xenografting not only increases the number of tumorigenic cells, but also eliminates human normal stromal or blood cells and gives unambiguous data on allelic loss.