概要：Saos-2 cells are a type of human osteosarcoma cell line that has been extensively used in bone cancer research for several decades.
These cells were derived from the primary osteosarcoma of an 11-year-old Caucasian girl in 1973 by Fogh et al.
Saos-2 cells are attractive sources of bone-related molecules for research because they display several osteoblastic features.
For instance, they express receptors for 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 and have high basal alkaline-phosphatase activity.
They also express the parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor and produce cyclic AMP in response to treatment with PTH.
Saos-2 cells do not form tumors when injected subcutaneously into immunocompromised mice.
However, when injected into diffusion chambers implanted intra-peritoneally into immunocompromised mice, these cells produce a mineralized matrix, a defining characteristic of osteoblastic cells.
Saos-2 cells are attractive for bone cancer research because they can be fully differentiated like the osteoblastic cells naturally do.
This characteristic makes these cells a valuable model for studying events associated with the late osteoblastic differentiation stage in human cells.
Saos-2 cells have a doubling time of 48 hours, which is relatively fast.
This property makes it possible to obtain large amounts of cells in a short amount of time.
Moreover, Saos-2 cells have well-documented characterization data and are widely available.
These properties make Saos-2 cells an attractive model for bone cancer research.
Saos-2 cells have been extensively used as an in vitro model of normal osteoblast behavior.
Despite their origin from an osteosarcoma patient, Saos-2 cells represent a mature osteoblast phenotype with a high ALP activity.
In fact, in a study that compared three osteosarcoma cell lines (MG-63, Saos-2, and U-2 OS) with normal human osteoblasts by immunocytochemistry, Saos-2 cells revealed the most mature osteoblastic labeling profile.
In contrast, U-2 OS cells were negative for most of the investigated osteoblastic markers.
Furthermore, some studies have used human Saos-2 cells lacking endogenous p53 to examine the role of p53 in osteosarcoma development.
These cells were found to be resistant to p53-mediated apoptosis and displayed increased sensitivity to DNA damage induced by chemotherapeutic agents.
Karyotype：The stemline chromosome number is hypotriploid with the modal number of 56 chromosomes per cell and the 2S component occurring at 13.2%. Over two-thirds of the chromosome complement consisted of structurally rearranged chromosomes. Most marker chromosomes had complex rearrangements. The origin of the segments composing these markers could not be identified. Of the identifiable markers, 6p+/q+, 7p+, 11p+, and 12p+ occasionally were present at 2 copies per cell. The Y chromosome was not detected in the QM stained preparation.
