ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MOUSE OVARIAN SURFACE EPITHELIAL-CELL LINES

The incidence of ovarian malignancies has significantly increased in t he past decades in many countries, however, an appropriate animal mode l system enabling the study of ovarian cancer such as stable mouse ova rian epithelial cell lines has not yet been developed. Here we report the establishment of cell lines derived from mouse ovarian surface epi thelium (MOSE) by two procedures - one, through the introduction of SV 40 large T antigen DNA into C3H/He MOSE (T-Ag-MOSE) and another throug h spontaneous immortalization of cells from p53-deficient MOSE (p53-de f-MOSE). p53-def-MOSE cell line did not show any transformed phenotype either in vitro culture system nor in vivo tumorigenicity assay, wher eas T-Ag-MOSE formed tumors in nude mice. Tumors formed by the injecti on of T-Ag-MOSE were undifferentiated malignancies associated with het erologous mesothelial tissues such as those of the osteoid phenotype. The established MOSE cell lines are useful in the molecular analysis o f the multistep carcinogenesis of ovarian tissues in humans.