T. Fujiwara et al., CHARACTERIZATION OF 4 NEW CELL-LINES DERIVED FROM SMALL-CELL GASTROINTESTINAL CARCINOMA, International journal of cancer, 54(6), 1993, pp. 965-971
Four human small-cell gastrointestinal carcinoma cell lines were estab
lished from tumor tissues of patients with esophageal, gastric or rect
al cancer, and were studied morphologically and biochemically in compa
rison with small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) cell lines and common gast
ric cancer cell lines. Cells from all the small-cell gastrointestinal
carcinoma lines were as small as classic SCLC cells and had characteri
stic neurosecretory granules. Cells from only one line grew as tightly
packed spherical aggregates of floating cells, and those of the other
3 grew attached to substrate. Although high levels of creatine kinase
brain isoenzyme (CK-BB) were detected in all 4 cell lines, 2 of them
showed low levels of aromatic L-amino-acid decarboxylase and 3 had low
levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE). None of the lines showed sim
ultaneous elevation of enzymes. C-myc, N-myc, and L-myc were not ampli
fied in any of the cell lines, but c-myc mRNA was expressed in 2 lines
. Our findings indicate that all small-cell gastrointestinal carcinoma
cells examined belong to the variant type which is used in the classi
fication of SCLC. Furthermore, the ECC18 line, derived from esophageal
cancer, seemed to be of true endocrine cell origin, while the 3 other
small-cell gastrointestinal carcinoma lines seemed to arise via neopl
astic neometaplasia from adenocarcinoma cells to endocrine cells. (C)
1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.