Osteoblastic and osteolytic human osteosarcomas can be studied with a new xenograft mouse model producing spontaneous metastases.

There is no animal model that reflects the histological and radiographical heterogeneity of osteosarcoma. We assessed seven osteosarcoma cell lines for their potential to develop orthotopic tumors and lung metastasis in SCID mice. Whereas radiologically, 143B developed osteolytic tumors, SaOS-LM7 developed osteoblastic primary tumors. The mineralization status was confirmed by assessing the alkaline phosphatase activity and the microarray expression profile. We herein report a xenograft orthotopic osteosarcoma mouse model to assess osteoblastic and osteolytic lesions, which may contribute in the search for new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.