DIFFERENTIAL GROWTH OF N-TYPE AND S-TYPE HUMAN NEUROBLASTOMA-CELLS XENOGRAFTED INTO SCID MICE - CORRELATION WITH APOPTOSIS

This study concerns the role of apoptosis in the growth of human neuro blastomas transplanted into immunodeficient SCID mice, Human neuroblas toma cell lines may consist of one or more distinct phenotypes includi ng the neural 'N-type' and flat substrate-adherent 'S-type'. A differe ntial phenotype-specific proliferation was apparent among S- and N-typ e cell clones transplanted into SCID mice when compared with the wild- type SK-N-BE(2) cell line, This differential growth capacity of the tu mours was correlated with spontaneous apoptosis, Another SK-N-BE(2)-de rived cell line (TGA), displaying high levels of apoptosis upon stable transfection with the full length 'tissue' transglutaminase (fTG) cDN A, was unable to induce tumour development when xenografted into SCID mice. To support these observations, the expression of apoptosis-relat ed genes (i.e., bcl-2, p53, and fTG) in the various neuroblastomas was also investigated.