Biological characterization and oncogene expression in human colorectal carcinoma cell lines

Abstract

To establish well-characterized cellular reagents for the study of colon carcinoma, we have examined 19 human colorectal carcinoma cell lines with regard to morphology, ultrastructure, expression of tumor-associated antigens, proliferative capacity in vitro, anchorage-independent growth, oncogene expression, tumorigenicity and malignant potential. Cell lines examined were cultured under identical conditions, and in vitro and in vivo analyses were performed in parallel on replicate cultures. Three classes of colorectal cell lines were defined according to their tumorigenicity in nude mice. Class-1 lines formed rapidly progressing tumors in nearly all mice at an inoculum of 10(6) cells. Cell lines belonging to class-2 were less tumorigenic, producing tumors later and at a slower growth rate. Class-3 lines were non-tumorigenic under all experimental conditions tested. By Northern analysis, the oncogenes c-myc, H-ras, K-ras, N-ras, myb, fos and p53 were expressed in nearly all cell lines examined. In contrast, transcripts for abl, src and ros were not detected. The best in vitro predictor of tumorigenicity was colony formation in soft agar. There was no detectable correlation between tumorigenicity and metastatic potential, doubling time in vitro, production of tumor-associated markers, xenograft histology or expression of specific oncogenes.

Microsatellite deletions in the c-myb transcriptional attenuator region associated with over-expression in colon tumour cell lines

“…Data associating c-myb gene ampli®cation with colon carcinomas and adenomatous polyps has been con¯icting (Yokata et al, 1986;Meltzer et al, 1987;Torelli et al, 1987;Grego et al, 1994). However, studies examining colon tumour cell lines have consistently reported a very low incidence of c-myb gene ampli®cation (Alitalo et al, 1984;Melani et al, 1991;Trainer et al, 1988). The data presented in this study supports these ®ndings as there was no evidence of ampli®cation in any of the seven human colon tumour cell lines examined.…”

“…In the colonic system, c-myb expression is observed in normal murine and human colonic mucosa and is present at elevated levels in human pre-malignant adenomatous polyps, tumours and tumour cell lines (Alitalo et al, 1984;Torelli et al, 1987;Trainer et al, 1988;Ramsay et al, 1992;Thompson and Ramsay, 1995). In contrast to c-myb expression in transformed hemopoietic tissues and cells of murine and avian origin, there was no evidence of Myb protein truncation (Ramsay et al, 1992).…”

Lectin binding and effects in culture on human cancer and non-cancer cell lines: Examination of issues of interest in drug design strategies

“…Tumorigenicity has been tested by ATCC and is detailed on their website (www.atcc.org) and in Quinn et al, (1979) and Trainer et al, (1988).…”

A novel oncogenic role for the miRNA-506-514 cluster in initiating melanocyte transformation and promoting melanoma growth

“…Moreover, many previous publications have utilized the soft agar assay to demonstrate the transformation capacity of oncogenes (Rasmussen et al, 2001;Lu et al, 2008;Syed et al, 2008;Monsel et al, 2010), as this assay is well documented to be predictive of in vivo tumorigenicity (Rhim, 1983;Trainer et al, 1988), malignant potential (Montesano et al, 1977) and drug response (Zirvi et al, 1983;Scholz et al, 1990). Taken together, these observations increase confidence in the oncogenic potential of the miR-506-514 cluster.…”