New establishment and characterization of a carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)-producing cell line from a human carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

A new human cell line (TC-S) was established from a metastatic lesion of a inguinal lymph node of a large-cell keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. The population doubling time was 29.8 hours. Plating efficiency was 85.5%. The mitotic coefficient was 3.2%. The generation time was about 27 hours, (G1 phase 16 hours, S phase 4 hours, G2 phase 6 hours and M phase 1 hour). Electron microscopically, desmosomes, developed tonofilaments and macronucleoli were found. After subcutaneous transplantation into nude mice, the cells grew into solid tumors that killed the mice. Histopathologically, the tumors formed in nude mice showed keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma, which resembled those of the original cervical cancer and the metastatic lymph node. The TC-S cells produced carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). By the scanning microdensitometric and flow cytometric analyses, the TC-S was classified as hyperploid with a hyperquadroploidy mode.