CHARACTERIZATION OF 4 NEW GASTRIC-CANCER CELL-LINES

Four well differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines from German patients have been established from primary tumors (St 23132, St 3051 ) and lymph node metastases (St 2474, St 2957). The tumor cells were i solated by enzymatic or mechanical treatment. All four lines grew as s olid tumors in nude mice and formed colonies in soft agar. The doublin g time of the cells in culture was 25-32 h. Further characteristics of the lines were a considerable chromosomal aneuploidy, (the chromosoma l numbers varying from 30-109 with many numerical and structural abnor malities), a stable keratin expression (Ck 8, 18, 19), the expression and secretion of CEA and CA-19-9 and the overexpression of c-myc. The four stomach cancer cell lines described here are not only a useful ad dition to the small number of existing lines, but also represent ideal tools for studying tumorigenicity of human stomach cancers in vitro a nd in vivo.