Production of various marker substances in human ovarian cancer cell lines of epithelial origin.

Some characteristics of cell biology and the production of various tumor markers were examined using 8 human ovarian cancer cell lines of epithelial origin. Structural abnormalities of chromosomes 1, 3, and 6 were relatively common karyotypic changes among the cell lines. Cytoplasmic estradiol or progesterone receptor was not detected in any of the cell lines. A significant heterogeneity of the production of various tumor markers (ferritin, tissue peptide antigen, carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigens 125, and 19-9) was noted among the cell lines grown in culture medium supplemented with serum. Three of the 8 cell lines were adapted to proliferate in completely synthetic serum-free culture medium. In addition to marker substances described above, small amounts of progesterone or human chorionic gonadotropin were produced in 2 of the 3 cell lines grown in serum-free culture medium. These results indicate that various marker substances including tumor markers are not produced consistently by human ovarian cancer cells of epithelial origin.