ESTABLISHMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A HUMAN-PAPILLOMAVIRUS NEGATIVE, P53-MUTATION NEGATIVE HUMAN CERVICAL-CANCER CELL-LINE

A human cervical cancer cell line, CX, was established from a patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. The CX cells were epithelial in morphology with relatively large vesicular nuclei, and p rominent nucleoli. Cytoplasmic organelles were generally sparse but to nofilaments were relatively abundant. The cells grew as a compact shee t with close membrane approximation interconnected by desmosome-like j unctions. CX cells contained cytokeratin, but not vimentin. Elevated l evels of squamous cell carcinoma antigen and carcinoembryonic antigen were detected in the cell supernatants. Population doubling time was e stimated to be about 20 h. CX cells were not able to grow in soft agar and not tumorigenic in nude mice. Chromosome analysis revealed that C X cells were heterogeneous and mainly had a female diploid karyotype. Unlike cervical cancer cell lines published previously, CX cells were demonstrated to be human papillomavirus-negative, p53 mutation-negativ e. Based on the distinct characteristics, CX cell line may prove to be a useful tool for the study of human cervical carcinogenesis.