Growth characteristics of murine B16 melanoma multicellular spheroids: a model for invasion and effects of doxorubicin treatments.
Multicellular spheroids, derived from murine B16 melanoma cells, showed unique growth characteristics: when they reached about 500 microns in diameter, their morphology changed rapidly and they became amoeba-like irregular-shaped aggregates. This morphological characteristic closely resembled that of invasive cancer, and may serve as a model for local invasion. To test the possibility that the changes mentioned above can be inhibited by a drug, spheroids were treated with 0.8 microgram/ml of doxorubicin for one hour and their morphology was observed temporally. Although this concentration of the drug decreased the survival of the melanoma cells in monolayer to about 10(-3), the growth was not delayed nor were the "invasion"-like changes inhibited in the spheroids. We believe this system of multicellular spheroids is a useful model to study the mechanisms of tumour invasion, although doxorubicin could not inhibit "invasion"-like changes in this system.
Kuwashima
Y
Y
Second Department of Pathology, Gifu University School of Medicine, Japan.
Yamada
T
T
Saio
M
M
Takami
T
T
D000818:Animals; D002449:Cell Aggregation; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000633:toxicity*; D007700:Kinetics; D008546:Melanoma, Experimental / Q000473:pathology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D004317:Doxorubicin