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Functional Role of Platelets in Experimental Metastasis Studied with Cloned Murine Fibrosarcoma Cell Variants¹

Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32610

The involvement of platelets in experimental metastasis was studied with cloned cell lines derived from PAK 17, a recently induced methylcholanthrene-induced C57BL/6 mouse fibrosarcoma. Tumor cell-induced platelet aggregation and lung colonization assays were used to distinguish three major stable phenotypes among the clones: a low metastatic-low platelet aggregating type, e.g., clone PAK 17.12; a low metastatic-high platelet aggregating type, e.g., clone PAK 17.14; and a high metastatic-high platelet aggregating phenotype, e.g., clone PAK 17.15. Clones with high metastatic but low platelet aggregating potential were not observed in the study. Intravenously injected PAK 17.14 and PAK 17.15 cells, but not PAK 17.12 cells, induced >50% reductions in circulating platelet levels in C57BL/6 mice.

Since highly metastatic clone PAK 17.15 cells consistently induced high levels of tumor cell-induced platelet aggregation regardless of the platelet donor, it was selected to study the relationship between its tumor cell-induced platelet aggregation and lung colonizing abilities. (a) A 93% decrease in lung colony number resulted in mice injected with 100 µg of prostacyclin immediately before injection of clone PAK 17.15 cells. Prostacyclin was also able to inhibit, in a dose dependent fashion (0–5 ng), platelet aggregation induced by clone PAK 17.15 cells in vitro. (b) A 92% reduction in lung colony number occurred in mice showing marked thrombocytopenia following injection of 100 µg of rabbit anti-mouse platelet antibody 24 h before tumor cell injection. (c) A >80% reduction in clone PAK 17.15 lung colony number was observed in mice rendered thrombocytopenic by i.v. injection of 0.038 units of neuraminidase 24 h before i.v. injection of 10⁵ tumor cells. These results suggest that platelets are required for successful lung colonization by clone PAK 17.15 cells. However, the presence in this fibrosarcoma of high platelet aggregating-poorly metastatic cells, such as clone PAK 17.14, demonstrates that while the ability to aggregate platelets is necessary for successful metastasis by some tumor cells, it is insufficient if tumor cells lack other critical properties required for completion of the metastatic cascade.

¹ Supported in part by NIH Grants HL-35124 and T32 CA 09126-11.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 9/14/87. Revised 11/30/87. Accepted 12/10/87.

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