Establishment and characterization of a novel cell line derived from thymoma with myasthenia gravis patients

Abstract

BackgroundThymoma is a cancer with rare incidence, but it is a major malignancy in adult anterior mediastinum, occurring in about 40% of patients with myasthenia gravis. Because of the lack of thymic epithelial tumor cell lines, thymoma has lagged far behind other tumors in cytological studies. It is, therefore, quite necessary to establish a new thymic epithelial tumor cell line from Chinese patients to study the pathogenic mechanism and therapeutic methods.MethodsTwenty-three samples of tumor tissues were collected from thymoma and thymic carcinoma patients for primary culture by tissue explant, suspension cell culture method, and collagenase digestion. We detected the biological characteristics and origin of the cell line after the establishment of a novel thymoma cell line.ResultsA novel cell line, designed as Thy0517, was established from thymoma type AB with myasthenia gravis patients by tissue explant. As an immortalized cell line, it always has a stable growth cycle, and there is no change in characteristics and morphology after culturing for 18 months and passing 160 generations in vitro. The experimental data demonstrate that the cell line exhibits the growth characteristics of tumor cells, the doubling time of 37 hours, with tumorigenicity in vitro and chromosome abnormality. Immunocytochemistry indicated that the cell line positive expression of CK7, CK8/18, CK19, CK-pan, CD24, BCL-2, P63, Vimentin, epithelial membrane antigen and epidermal growth factor receptor, lymphocyte related antigen CD99, and TdT were negatively expressed.ConclusionsThe newly established thymic epithelial tumor cell line from Chinese patients provides a model in the study of thymoma and molecularly targeted therapies.

PI3K as a Potential Therapeutic Target in Thymic Epithelial Tumors

“…The challenge is in large part due to the shortage of model systems and currently there are only six cell lines available for this tumor type. 24–28 Here, we report the establishment of a new cell line (designated as MP57) derived from a patient with thymic carcinoma. Through characterization of MP57 along with other cell lines and primary tumors, we identified 5 actionable mutations in 4 different subunits of PI3K.…”

Wnt4 overexpression promotes thymoma development through a JNK‑mediated planar cell polarity‑like pathway

“…A human thymoma cell line was derived in vitro from a 50-year old Chinese man with AB-type thymoma and myasthenia gravis. The cell line was maintained in primary culture at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM, Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Gibco; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), 100 IU/ml penicillin and 100 µg/ml streptomycin, at 37°C in a humidified 5% CO 2 atmosphere ( 14 ).…”

Decreased Wnt4 expression inhibits thymoma development through downregulation of FoxN1

“…A human thymoma cell line named Thy0517 was derived in vitro from a 50-year-old Chinese man who had an AB type thymoma and myasthenia gravis (Patent Number: ZL 2014 1 0312866.6, SIPO of the P.R.C). This cell line was maintained and cultured at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum, 100 IU/mL penicillin, and 100 µg/mL streptomycin, in a 37 ℃, 5% CO 2 humidified atmosphere (9).…”