Developmental Potentialities of Clonal In Vitro Cultures of Mouse Testicular Teratoma

Summary

A transplantable testicular teratocarcinoma from strain 129/J mice was cloned in vitro. Thirty-five clonal and subclonal cultures were isolated and tested for their ability to differentiate when injected into host mice. All clonal cultures produced tumors containing multiple differentiations; those appearing most frequently were neural tissue, mesenchyme, parietal yolk sac, cartilage, and nonciliated epithelium. The stability of the potentialities of cultured clonal cells during their long-term propagation in vitro was examined. Clonal lines retained the potential to produce multiply differentiated tumors even after continuous in vitro culture for over 10 months (119 generations). Limited in vitro differentiation of teratoma cells was observed, including neural tissue, mesenchyme, and parietal yolk sac.