CHARACTERIZATION OF 4 MERKEL CELL-CARCINOMA ADHERENT CELL-LINES

We have previously described the establishment of a number of cell lin es from Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), also known as small cell cancer o f the skin or neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin. These cells, all o f which grew as suspension cultures, were found to resemble small cell lung cancer (SCLC) lines types 1, 2 and 3 by their morphology and gro wth characteristics. We now report 4 more MCC cell lines which resembl e the SCLC type 4 cell lines in that they grow as adherent monolayers. These MCC lines would belong to the variant subgroup as they no longe r express most neuroendocrine markers, grow at low cell density and ha ve population doubling times of 1-5 days in contrast to the MCC suspen sion lines which have doubling times of 6-12 days. MCC14/1 and MCC14/2 were established from the same metastatic node and would appear to re present 2 clones of the tumour which differ in morphology, histochemic al markers and DNA content. We present details of the morphology, DNA content and immunohistochemistry of these 4 lines and compare their gr owth patterns with those of SCLC and MCC lines which grow in suspensio n. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.