Abstract
Background: Osteosarcomas are malignant bone tumors consisting of cells with abnormal cellular functions. Although osteosarcoma-derived cells are commonly used for osteoblastic models, the molecular composition of the osteosarcoma extracellular matrix (ECM) is not well characterized. Materials and Methods: We compared three osteosarcoma cell lines (MG-63, Saos-2 and U-2 OS) with normal human osteoblasts by immunocytochemistry. Cellular characteristics were assessed by morphometric analysis and proliferation kinetics. Results: All investigated osteosarcoma cell lines exhibited very heterogeneous labelling profiles and each differed significantly from that of normal osteoblasts. Saos-2 cells revealed the most mature osteoblastic labelling profile while U-2 OS cells were negative for most of the investigated osteoblastic markers. Conclusion: We conclude that each osteosarcoma cell line exhibits a characteristic labelling profile and thus produces a differently composed extracellular matrix. This can be used in attempts to better characterize osteosarcoma, a as well as for their diagnosis.
Footnotes
↵* Both authors contributed equally to this investigation, which is part of the doctoral thesis of Christoph Pautke and published with permission of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
- Received May 19, 2004.
- Accepted October 11, 2004.
- Copyright© 2004 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved