Establishment of rat liver cancer cell lines with different metastatic potential

The gloomy outcome of liver cancer is mainly due to the high rates of metastasis and recurrence, even after curative resection for early stage liver cancer. Our study was conducted to find the animal model suitable for the study of liver cancer metastasis. In our study, two liver cancer cells were obtained from N-nitrosodiethylamine (DEN) and N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR) induced rats, and they were cultivated, screened and cloning cultivated. Bionomics of cells was analyzed. The results show that 2 cells had different metastatic potentiality. They were named Wrh-f2 and Wrh-s2, and they have the characteristics of Hepatocellular carcinoma cells. The bionomics of 2 cells showed: (1) The chromosome karyotype analysis showed that the mode of Wrh-f2 was 80–83 and Wrh-s2 was 55–57; (2) AFP positive cytoplasmic staining was observed in Wrh-f2 and Wrh-s2. Cytokeratin (CK) 7 and CK8 positive staining was present in Wrh-f2. CK8 positive staining was present in Wrh-s2; (3) The numbers of Wrh-f2 and Wrh-s2 that passed through the Transwells were 98 ± 12 and 55 ± 15;(4) Wrh-f2 had the significant higher colony formation (78%) than Wrh-s2(8%) (P < 0.01). (5) The animal models generated solid tumours when 2 cells were inoculated to nude mouse and rat. And Wrh-f2 developed stable pulmonary metastasis. The established cell lines with different metastatic potential showed obvious advantages over liver cancer in mimicking the biological properties of malignant liver cancer tumors. It provided a suitable model for the mechanism of liver cancer metastasis in vivo and in vitro.