Specific Detection of Metastasized Human Tumor Cells in Nude Mice by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

In order to develop an assay which is highly sensitive and quantitative, specific detection of a segment of human β-globin gene in metastasized human tumor cells in nude mice was performed by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and analyzed by Southern blotting. In this series, we used human fibrosarcoma HT-1080 cells. The results showed that lung metastasis could be detected as positive amplified PCR fragments from 1 week after tumor inoculation in the experimental metastatic model system. On the other hand, both lung and lymph node metastasis could be detected from 5 weeks after tumor inoculation in the spontaneous metastatic model system. In addition, by this method, therapeutic effects on lung metastasis of human tumor in nude mice could be detected within 2 weeks after tumor inoculation. This method will be useful for the elucidation of the mechanism of metastasis or invasion of human tumor cells in experimental animals and should contribute to the development of new chemotherapeutic methods for metastasis.