Preneoplastic and neoplastic growth of xenotransplanted lung-derived human cell lines using deepithelialized rat tracheas.

The human lung tumor-derived cell lines A549, Calu-1, Calu-3, HuT292, and SW900 and the transformed human bronchial epithelial cell line TBE-1, that was transfected with the v-Harvey-ras oncogene, were inoculated into deepithelialized Fisher 344 rat tracheas (5 X 10(5) cells/trachea). After the ends of the tracheas were sealed, the tracheas were transplanted into s.c. tissues of nude mice. In a parallel experiment, 1 X 10(6) cells from each of these cell lines were injected s.c. Histological examination of the tracheal transplants 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks after cell inoculation proved to be of greater usefulness than either clinical or histological observation of the s.c. injection sites. A549, Calu-1, and TBE-1 produced intratracheal neoplastic nodules as early as 2 weeks after cell inoculation. Calu-3, HuT292, and SW900 grew relatively slowly in the tracheas, and simple or stratified epithelia with slight or moderate atypia (preneoplastic lesions) were seen at 2 weeks. After the 4th week, they produced tumor nodules in the tracheal transplants, whereas no tumor cells could be seen at the s.c. injection sites. The human derivation of the cells was confirmed by in situ hybridization using human-specific DNA probes. The intratracheal inoculation and xenotransplantation of human-derived cell lines offers a time-saving alternative to the s.c. inoculation assay for tumorigenicity and is at the same time a potentially valuable approach to studying preneoplastic and neoplastic progression with human cell subpopulations.