Characterization of ten newly-derived human head and neck squamous carcinoma cell lines with special reference to c-erbB proto-oncogene expression.

Ten human head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines were established in order to study the role of c-erbB signaling pathways in HNSCC progression. Five cell lines were derived from primary tumors at four different sites, and five were from lymph node metastases in the neck. Two pairs of lines were derived from the primary tumor and metastatic lymph node in the same patient. Basic characteristics including morphology, doubling time, phenotypes, cytogenetic profiles and tumorigenicity in nude mice were described. We examined the expression of c-erbB receptors and ligands in early passage new HNSCC lines and compared with five long-term established lines, normal keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Amplification of c-erbB-1 (EGFR) gene was observed in only one cell line whereas no amplification of other c-erbB genes was found. Overexpression of EGFR, c-erbB-2, c-erbB-3 and c-erbB-4 mRNAs was observed in 10, 14, 10 and 8 out of 15 head and neck cell lines respectively. Overexpression of c-erbB-3 and c-erbB-4 was more frequently observed in newly derived HNSCC lines than in long-established cell lines. The majority of tumor cells also expressed multiple c-erbB ligands. One selected cell line, SIHN-006, was shown to exhibit tyrosine phosphorylation via all four receptors. These new cell lines could provide a useful experimental model to study the co-operative signaling of type I tyrosine kinase receptors in HNSCC progression.