Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-102, 59-74, Copyright © 1961 by Company of Biologists

The Chemical and Physical Nature of the Visible Regions of Mouse Ascites Tumour Cells, and of the Cells of Solid Tumours grown from them

¹ Chester Beatty Research Institute, Royal Cancer Hospital, London, and the Cytological Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Oxford; Zoölogisch Laboratorium, University of Leiden, Holland

A new technique was used to embed separate mouse ascites cells of 7 different strains in a supporting medium so that they could be sectioned, and a number of histochemical tests were carried out on this material. The results of these were in good general agreement with the findings of Love & others (1953, 1956), who investigated the histochemical properties of dried smear preparations of ascites cells of very similar strains; but certain important differences were found, notably the present investigation revealed the presence of phospholipid in almost all the lipid droplets in the cytoplasm. No important differences were found in the histochemical properties of the cells of the 7 different strains examined, nor between these and the cells of subcutaneous solid tumours grown from them.

The solid content of the cytoplasm, nuclear sap, and nucleoli of the living cells of 6 of these 7 strains were measured by immersion refractometry and interference microscopy. The mean total solids in the cytoplasm were, in all strains, near to 14% w/v and the concentration in the nuclear sap was usually a little lower than this. The total solid in the nucleoli was approximately 50% w/v. Intact living cells were also isolated from the solid tumours by means of a special ‘homogenizer’, and the total solid in their cytoplasm was in all cases identical with that of the ascites cells from which they were derived.

From these data it seems probable that the chemical and physical characteristics of many different strains of ascites cells, including those of carcinomatous, sarcomatous, and leukaemic origin, do not differ markedly from one another; and are also probably not very different from those of the cells of the solid tumours from which they were originally derived.