Retention of tissue-specific phenotype in a panel of colon carcinoma cell lines: relationship to clinical correlates.

A panel of eight cell lines has been derived from colon carcinomas. These cell lines have both been characterized according to standard criteria of growth rate, response to mitogens (epidermal growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor), xenograft growth and growth in soft agar, and according to the ability of the cells to express epitopes known to be expressed by cells in the normal intestinal mucosa. The expression of epitopes present in columnar (absorptive) cells has been assessed using a panel of monoclonal antibodies to brush border peptidases and disaccharidases, villin and brush border-specific peptides. Goblet cell epitopes have been determined by monoclonal antibodies to mucin and carcinoembryonic antigen. An antibody to chromogranin was used to identify endocrine cells. Using these antibodies we found that all the cell lines reacted with at least one of the antibodies to columnar cells. Similarly, varying proportions of cells in six of the eight cell lines stained with antibodies to mucin. None of the cells expressed chromogranin. Expression of a differentiated colonic phenotype, as measured from antibody staining, did not correlate with measurements of malignancy, such as the ability of the cells to grow in soft agar or as xenografts. Similarly, there was no correlation between retention of a colonic phenotype and the initial pathological stage of the tumour from which the cell lines were derived.