Background: To study the morphological and ultrastructural characteristics in the angiogenesis of human lung adenocarcinoma cell LALU.
Methods: LALU, human lung adenocarcinoma cell line, was implanted into SCID mice subcutaneously and the angiogenesis process was sequentially observed with light microscope and electron microscope.
Results: The light microscopy showed that the angiogenesis process of transplanted tumor could be divided into the protophase of tumor angiogenesis and stage of angiogenesis during the 2nd to the 10th day after transplantation. On the 20th day, the metastatic foci were found in the lung. The electron microscopy showed that angioblast cells were found in transplanted tumor tissues on the 2nd day . From the 4th to the 10th day, the vascular endothelial cells began to form blood vessel cavity with complete new-grown basement membrane. The vascular endothelial cells became maturer on the 20th day, however, part of basement membranes of the newly grown blood vessels were incomplete. The cancer cells connected with angioblast cells, vascular endothelial cells and blood vessel walls in the whole process of angiogenesis.
Conclusions: The characteristics observed by histopathology and ultrastructure may provide some important indicators in the treatment of lung cancer.