Establishment of transplantable human colon cancer cell lines, chemosensitivity of these colon carcinomas and the serially transplantable strains with MTT assay

Three human colon carcinoma xenografts serially transplantable into nude mice were established and named Co-6, Co-7, and Co-8. The chemosensitivity of these stains were assessed by MTT assay of the fresh surgical specimens (primary MTT assay) and the serially passaged xenografts (xenografts MTT assay), in vivo chemosensitivity test in nude mice (nude mouse system) and clinical responses. Drugs used for the experiments are mitomycin C (MMC), adriamycin (ADM), 5-flourouracil (5-FU) and cisplatin (DDP). The primary MTT assay revealed true negative with MMC and 5-FU on Co-7 and Co-8 cases. The chemosensitivity of the tumor cells seemed to be increased in the xenografts MTT assay and nude mouse system, in which MMC and DDP were evaluated to be positive on Co-6 and Co-7. However, the chemosensitivity pattern of the tumor cells seemed to be stable in these chemosensitivity tests, indicating better to choose the agent with the highest inhibition rate among various tested agents, even when none have an inhibition rate equal to or more than 50%.