Abstract
Successful heterotransplantation was reported for 6 out of 15 human liver cancers from 14 patients. They were consecutively transplanted to the nude mice. Among of them, one hepatocarcinoma (Hc-4) has been serially transplanted 12 passages with 100% take rate. The tumors began to grow on the nude mice 10 days after transplantation and increased in size semilogalithm-liniarly. The doubling time was 5 days. The tumor volume was 300-600 mm3 after 4 weeks. Alpha-fetoprotein was detected in the sera of almost of the mice.
The histological characteristics of the original tumors was well maintained in the transplanted tumors. However, the alveolar pattern was not manifest due to decrease in the stroma. The tumor (Hc-4) was identified as a tumor of the human origin with the absorption test, Ouchterlony's method and the chromosomal analysis.
Hc-4 tumor seems to be useful for studying tumor biology and various therapeutic modalities for hepatoma.
