Objective: This study was designed to select a highly metastatic cell clone from mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell line MEC-1 (M) derived from human salivary gland. Methods: Artificial lung metastasis in nude mice and cell culture techniques were used to select the highly metastic cell clone from cell line M. Cell growth analysis, chromosome staining and analysis, histologic observation, cloning assay, flowcytometry, and artificial metastasis methods in nude mice were mployed to characterize the cells. Results: Subline Mc was obtained from M after three in vivo selection cycles and three cell clones named Mc1, Mc2, and Mc3 were obtained from Mc aftger cloning culture. Hypodiploid karyotypes with human chromosome morphology were observed in M, Mc, Mc1, Mc2, and Mc3 cells. Cell-induced metastatic foci in the lungs of nude mice were characterized by the histologic feature of mucoepidermoid carinoma. The population doubling time of M, Mc, Mc1, Mc2, and Mc3 cells were 24.1, 22.5, 24.0, 23.0, and 22.6 hours respectively. The cloning efficiencies (%) were 18 +- 3, 26 +- 4, 3 +- 2, 4 +_ 2, and 233 +- 19, respectively. The percentage of s-phase cells in the cell cycle were 22.9, 16.9, 6.4, 5.9, and 24.5, respectively. The wild-type P53 protein positive expression rates (%) were 47.4, 34.1, 45.1, 53.1, and 24.0, respectively. The artificial lung metastasis rate in nude mice of Mc, Mc1, Mc2, and Mc3 compared with M were 239%, 56%, 85%, and 338%, respectively. Conclusion: Clone Mc3 is a highly metastatic cell clone selected from mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell line MEC-1 derived from human salivary gland.