Presence of double minutes and monosomy 17p in xenografted human osteosarcomas

Cytogenetic analysis of 8 cases of xenografted human osteosarcomas are reported, including six newly diagnosed and two recurrent tumors. Histologically five were osteoblastic, two were chondroblastic, and one was the microcellular type. All tumors were studied in short-term primary cultures between two and six days. Clonal and nonclonal abnormalities were present in the eight cases; four had a chromosome number in the hypotriploid range, two in the hyperdiploid, one in the hypodiploid, and one in the hypertetraploid range. All cases had complex karyotypes and the recognizable structural rearrangements clustered to chromosome arms 1p, 1q, 3p, 5p, 6q, 11p, 13p, 14p, 15q, 16p, 16q, 20q, 21p, and 22q. Seven cases presented double monosomy 17 and six tumors showed double minutes (dmin) or a homogeneously staining region (hsr). This fact has been described recently and its relation with the amplification of the MDM2 gene observed in osteosarcomas is as yet unknown.