Saos-2 cells explained

Saos-2 ("sarcoma osteogenic") is a cell line derived from the primary osteosarcoma of an 11-year-old Caucasian girl in 1973 by Fogh et al.^[1] The cell line is commonly used in bone cancer research as a model for testing novel therapies.^[2]

In 1987 Rodan et al. determined that Saos-2 cells "possess several osteoblastic features and could be useful as a permanent line of human osteoblast-like cells and as a source of bone-related molecules."^[3]

Besides their worldwide availability, some of the advantages for using Saos-2 cell line are that they have well-documented characterization data, the possibility to obtain large amounts of cells in short time, and the fact that Saos-2 cells can be fully differentiated in a manner that the osteoblastic cells naturally do.^[4] The latter point is described particularly as "the ability of Saos-2 cells to deposit a mineralization-competent extracellular matrix",^[5] which makes these cells a valuable model for studying events associated with the late osteoblastic-osteocyte differentiation stage in human cells. ^{[6] [7]}

External links

• Information on Saos-2 in the DSMZ catalog
• Information on Saos-2 in the ATCC catalog
• Cellosaurus entry for Saos-2

Notes and References

1. Fogh J, Fogh JM, Orfeo T . 1977 . One hundred and twenty-seven cultured human tumor cell lines producing tumors in nude mice . J Natl Cancer Inst . 59 . 1 . 221–226 . 327080 . 10.1093/jnci/59.1.221 .
2. Web site: ATCC. Saos-2. 11 June 2018.
3. Rodan SB, Imai Y, Thiede MA, Wesolowski G, Thompson D, Bar-Shavit Z, Shull S, Mann K, Rodan GA . 1987 . Characterization of a human osteosarcoma cell line (Saos-2) with osteoblastic properties . 3040234. Cancer Res. . 47 . 18 . 4961–6.
4. Hausser HJ, Brenner RE . 15939397. Phenotypic instability of Saos-2 cells in long-term culture . Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. . 2005 . 333 . 1 . 216–22. 10.1016/j.bbrc.2005.05.097.
5. McQuillan DJ, Richardson MD, Bateman JF . Matrix deposition by a calcifying human osteogenic sarcoma cell line (SAOS- 2) . 7605701. 10.1016/8756-3282(95)90186-8 . Bone . 1995 . 16 . 4 . 415–26.
6. Gundle R, Beresford JN . 1995 . The isolation and culture of cells from explants of human trabecular bone . Calcif. Tissue Int. . 56 . Suppl 1 . S8-10 . 7719993. 10.1007/BF03354640. 11507101 .
7. Prideaux M, Wijenayaka AR, Kumarasinghe DD, Ormsby RT, Evdokiou A, Findlay DM, Atkins GJ . 2014 . Saos2 osteosarcoma cells as an in vitro model for studying the transition of human osteoblasts to osteocytes . Calcif. Tissue Int. . 95 . 2 . 183–193 . 24916279. 10.1007/s00223-014-9879-y . 253747577 .