Establishment and characterization of the follicular thyroid carcinoma cell line ML-1

The present study focuses on the establishment and characterization of a ne w follicular thyroid carcinoma cell line. The human cell line ML-1 was deri ved from a dedifferentiated follicular thyroid carcinoma relapse, which pro gressed despite preceding surgery followed by two radioiodine therapies. Mo re than 90% of the cells of this line express thyroglobulin? chondroitin su lfate, and vimentin antigens, but only about 70% show cytokeratin filaments and a negative surface charge density such as human erythrocytes. More imp ortantly, cells of this line are able to take up iodine and/or glucose both in vitro and in vivo and to secrete thyroglobulin, chondroitin sulfate, an d fibronectin into the interstitial space. In addition, triiodothyronine is released constitutively into culture supernatants. Moreover, it is also su itable for xenotransplantation studies because it is tumorigenic in NMRI nu de mice in vivo. The cell line forms tumors with follicular structures when transplanted to nude mice. Due to these unique features the ML-I cell line can be considered as a very suitable test model for pharmacological and ce ll biological studies. Since chemicals may interfere with the production of thyroid hormones, this cell line represents also a tool for toxicological investigations.