Characterization of Human Osteosarcoma Cell Lines Established from Primary and Secondary Lesions with Prominent Osteoid Formation

We characterized the two human osteosarcoma cell lines from an osteoblastic parosteal osteosarcoma arising in the right tibia and from a metastatic lesion of a 27-year-old female patient, designated as KIKU and KIKU-M cells, respectively. An investigation of the nature of human osteosarcoma cell lines derived from primary and secondary lesions of the same patient has not been previously reported. These cell lines had different growth rates, morphologies, chrosomomal analyses, ALP activities, amounts of BGP, and invasive capacities. Prominent osteoid formation and calcification were observed in osteosarcoma tissues produced by the subcutaneous transplantation of both cell lines. These results suggested that KIKU-M cells had more immature phenotypic features than did KIKU cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, both cell lines provide useful models for studying metabolism of human osteoblasts in vitro and the mechanisms of the differentiation and metastasis of human osteosarcoma.