Abstract
We have succeeded in transplanting human osteogenic sarcoma of the mandible into nude mice. The transplanted tumor shows the features of calcified chondrosarcoma. This time, focusing our attention on fibronectin which has various biological functions in the body, we studied the relations his between the distribution of fibronectin and chondrogenic differentiation of the transplanted tumor using immunofluorescence technique.
Fibronectin was distributed in cells and matrix in the marginal region of the transplanted tumor, and it disappeared in the pre-mineralized and mineralized regions. However, when sections were treated with hyaluronidase, fibronectin also appeared in these regions. These results indicate that the distribution of fibronectin changed during the differentiation of the transplanted tumor cells.
