Establishment and characterization of a human colonic mucinous carcinoma cell line with predominant goblet-cell differentiation from liver metastasis.

Many human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines have been developed. However, differentiated type colorectal cancer cell lines, particularly, the goblet-cell differentiated type, are scarce. In the present study a novel colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (designated as COLM-6) with predominant goblet-cell differentiation was established from the rectal mucinous adenocarcinoma of a Japanese woman. COLM-6 cells grow in a typical epithelial monolayer in culture. They expressed epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and HER2 on their surface and accordingly, their growth was significantly stimulated by EGF, transforming growth factor (TGF)-alpha and heregulin. COLM-6 cells form tumor with typical mucinous adenocarcinomatous appearance in nude mice. Immunohistochemical analysis of these subcutaneous tumors demonstrated that COLM-6 cells strongly express MUC2 as a goblet-cell marker and Cdx2 in the nucleus. Some weakly express villin and carbonic anhydrase 1 as a columnar absorptive-cell marker as well. They were also positive for adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) cytoplasmically and expressed beta-catenin in their cytoplasm and cell membrane without nuclear accumulation. These results indicate that COLM-6 cell line has unique characteristics and may provide a useful tool to study the mechanism of growth and differentiation of colonic epithelium as well as the biological behavior of colorectal mucinous adenocarcinoma.