A HUMAN GALLBLADDER SIGNET-RING CELL-CARCINOMA CELL-LINE

To date, very few reports of the establishment of gall-bladder cancer cell lines have appeared,(1-7) although many cancer cell lines of vari ous kinds have been established. On the other hand, no reports could b e found on signet ring cell carcinoma cell lines derived from the gall -bladder and only five cell lines from the stomach. A human gall-bladd er cancer cell line (FU-GBC-2) was established in tissue culture from the ascitic fluid of a 69-year-old Japanese female patient. The tumor cells growing in tissue culture exhibited the morphological characteri stics of signet ring cells in phase contrast and electron microscopy. The population doubling time was 43 hours, Heterotransplantation was s ucceeded by inoculation into the dermis of BALB/c nude mice. An immuno cytochemical study showed that most of the cultured cells were positiv e for carcinoembryonic antigen, CA19-9 and epithelial membrane antigen , but negative for vimentin. The modal chromosome number was 120 with a range of 100-124. Flow cytometry showed an aneuploidy pattern in the cultured cells at passage 30. Markedly amplified c-myc oncogene was o bserved by Southern blot analysis. This cell line may be useful in the study of the morphological and biological characteristics of signet r ing cell carcinoma and gallbladder adenocarcinoma.