| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SAYAMA Kazutoshi Shizuoka University, Department of Agriculture, Associate Professor, 農学部, 助教授 (30260582)
MATSUZAWA Akio University of Tokyo, Institute of Medical Science, Associate Professor, 医科学研究所, 助教授 (50012745)
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| Research Abstract |
The autonomous sublines, T4-O1320(320)and T4-O196(96), were established from the transplantable hormone-dependent mouse mammary tumor, TPDMT-4(T4), by passaging under different conditions. These autonomous tumors were characterized by rapid growth in DDD virgin mice and the parental T4 by no growth in them. In three-dimensional collagen gel culture, 320 cells formed branched or stellate structures similar to normal mammary glands as did T4, but 96 cells grew as rounded masses with knobs and showed completely different morphology. Then, 320 and 96 cells were cultured separately or co-cultured after collagenase dissociation to determine whether there are tumor cell/cell interaction on the growth rate and morphology. However, significant differences between single-culture and co-culture were not investigated on them, showing the necessity of improvement of the technology. Therefore, we studied whether the presence of methallotionein are different or not between these cells. This metal-binding protein, a candidate factor to be investigated relative to heterogeneity of tumor cells, is reported to associate with resistance of anti-tumor drugs. This protein was studied by immuno-histological methods. It was observed that the protein level was the lower in the less malignant subline tumors. Methallotionein seems to be a useful factor to investigate malignancy and heterogeneity of tumor cells. Application of this in vitro system to human breast cancer is in progress.
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