Establishment and characterization of human lingual squamous cell carcinoma cell lines designated Nialym derived from metastatic foci of lymph node, and Nialymx derived from transplanted tumor of Nialym cells.

The squamous cell carcinoma cell lines Nialym was successfully established from metastatic foci of lymph nodes from a 48-year-old male Japanese patient with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. In addition, the Nialymx cell line was established from a transplanted tumor of Nialym cells in SCID mice. Nialym cells were angular, with neoplastic and pleomorphic features. Two types of Nialym cell were observed by electron microscopy; light cells and dark cells. The dark cells had a number of waved tonofilaments in the cytoplasm, while light cells showed poorly developed organelles. The population doubling times for Nialym and Nialymx cells were approximately, 46 and 42 h at the 10th passage. Nialym cells secreted 4.8 ng/ml VEGF and 5.9 ng/ml HGF, Nialymx cells also secreted 6.7 ng/ml VEGF and 4.3 ng/ml HGF at the 10th passage for 3 days of culture. Histopathological aspects of Nialym and Nialymx cell lines were similar. We believe that these cell lines are valuable tools for elucidating the mechanisms of cancer metastasis and developing immunotherapy and chemotherapy regimens.