Establishment of three human renal cell carcinoma cell lines (SMKT-R-1, SMKT-R-2, and SMKT-R-3) and their characters.

We have established three new cell lines of human renal cell carcinoma (RCC), designated as SMKT-R-1, SMKT-R-2 and SMKT-R-3. These cell lines were derived from a primary lesion of the tumor or a tumor initially xenotransplanted in nude mice. These cell lines have maintained a stable growth in vitro for more than a year. They also exhibited characteristics showing a lack of contact inhibition of cells, colony formation in soft agarose and tumor formation in nude mice by a xenotransplantation of cells, all of which suggested an epithelial origin. The tumors produced in nude mice by the inoculation of cell lines were demonstrated by light an electron microscopy to be derived from RCC. The doubling time of these cell lines were 180.0 h, in SMKT-R-1, 56.4 h in SMKT-R-2 and 55.7 h in SMKT-R-3. The cell lines were aneuploid in their chromosomal analysis, and SMKT-R-2 and SMKT-R-3 also had three and two marker chromosomes, respectively. The different biological characters of these cell lines from the others so far established would be of benefit in the future study of human RCC.