Establishment of an epitheloid cell line and a fusiform cell line from a patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

An epithelioid cell line and a fusiform cell line were established from a tumor biopsy from a patient with nasopharyngeal carcinoma which as histologically diagnosed as a well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Based on studies of the cell growth pattern, chromosome analysis, heterotransplantation, and electron microscopy, these two cell lines were considered to be squamous carcinoma cells, and the fusiform cells might have originated from the epithelioid cells. There were many round cells on top of the epithelioid and fusiform cell sheets, many of which became continuously detached into the medium. Cultures initiated from these floating round cells grew into their original epithelioid or fusiform forms. No lymphoblastoid cell line could be established after cultivating these two cell lines for more than one year. No EB virus particle or early antigen could be detected in these two cell lines by means of electron microscopic examination and indirect immunofluorescence test.