OBJECTIVETo establish three orthotopically transplanted model of human primary malignant spleen lymphoma in the nude mice.

METHODSOrthotopic transplantation of histologically intact human primary malignant splenic lymphoma tissue obtained from patients was introduced into the splenic parenchyma of nude mice. Tumorigenicity, invasion, metastasis and morphological characteristics of the transplanted tumor were studied by light microscopy, electron microscopy and immunohistochemical methods.

RESULTSThe first kind, a strain of human primary malignant spleen lymphoma (non-Hodgkin's, cleaved B cell, BFNHL-HMN-1) screened from 11 patients which had been passaged in vivo for 41 generations, a second kind, a liver metastasis model of human primary malignant spleen lymphoma (non-Hodgkin's, cleaved B cell, LM-BFNHL-HMN-2) which had been passaged for 47 generations and a third kind of human primary malignant spleen lymphoma (non-Hodgkin's, T-immunoblastic cell, TINHL-HMN-3) having passaged for 37 generations were all successfully transplanted in 611 nude mice. Models of BFNHL-HMN-1 and TINHL-HMN-3 tumor gave nodular growth and lymph node metastasis in the spleen hilum but without any metastasis in the abdominal lymph nodes or organs. In the LM-BFNHL-HMN-2 model, not only did the tumor cells grow in the spleen, but in spleen hilum, lymph nodes and liver also. The orthotopically transplanted tumor cells were similar to the original human tumor in light histopathology, ultrastructure features, DNA content and chromosomal karyotype.

CONCLUSIONThese three models are able to serve as useful tools for the study of biologic characteristics and experimental treatment of human primary malignant lymphoma.