Background and objective: The aim of this study was to characterize primary cells from extrauterine carcinosarcoma (CS) and to establish a primary CS xenograft mouse model.
Methods: Primary cells were isolated from a patient with CS and cultured in vitro. Primary CS cells were verified for their ability to consecutively generate tumorigenesis in NOD/SCID mice. The properties of xenograft tumor and explants cells were investigated by immunohistochemistry, cytogenetic, and FACS analysis. Anticancer drug susceptibility of primary CS was analyzed using CCK-8.
Results: Primary CS cells greater than 27 passages in vitro showed an ability of a series of xenograft tumorigenesis in vivo having the same marker expression and cytogenetic character as that of original tumor. In addition, explants of xenograft tumors retained their original characteristics in the in vitro culture system. Finally, the analysis of the susceptibility to anticancer drug revealed that primary CS cells were susceptible to both doxorubicin and nilotinib, which are tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Conclusions: The primary CS cells and the primary CS xenograft tumorigenesis introduce a new therapeutic model for targeting cancer and also explore a deeper understanding of generation of the tumor itself.