[The morphous analyses of three different characteristics cells growing in soft agar.].
Soft agar assay was usually used in colony formation observation of cells, while it was also be empolyed in detecting bionomics of inferior creature. In this article the feasibility of soft agar assay in detecting mammalian cell phenotype is investigated. Three different characteristic cells(L cell NIH3T3;higher metastatic human lung adenocarcinoma cell line Anip973;higher invasive potential human lung adenocarcinoma cell line L18) were seed into soft agar. The morphology of cells was obserned in the first day, the fifth day and the fourteenth day,respectively. In the fifth day, morphology of the three kinds cells appeared difference and in the fourteenth day the difference became more notable. NIH3T3 cell clones were ellipse and moderate size, their boundary were distinct; Anip973 cell clones were surrounded with plenty of migratory cells, which was consistent with higher metastatic characteristics of the cells. L18 cell clones showed lots of branchs and extended toward environment. Soft agar assay is a good method in evaluating and observed biological property of mammalian cells according to their phenotypes.