Novel enhanced lung-colonizing variant of murine MBT-2 bladder cancer cells

To develop an enhanced lung-colonizing variant of murine bladder cancer that will allow the mechanism of metastasis to be studied more readily. We implanted murine bladder tumor cells (MBT-2) into the leg muscles of C3H mice. We developed variant cells from a lung metastasis nodule. We compared the MBT-2 cells and variant cells (MBT-2V) in vivo by evaluating lung nodule formation, survival, in vitro adhesion, and migration-invasion assays. Zymography and semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analyses were also performed to characterize the metastatic ability of both cells. MBT-2 and MBT-2V cells were tumorigenic when injected intramuscularly into C3H mice, but MBT-2 cells had little potential to metastasize compared with MBT-2V cells. Metastases were observed in the lungs of mice injected in the tail vein with MBT-2 and MBT-2V cells. Mice receiving MBT-2V cells had significantly shorter survival ( P