Establishment and characterization of four human epithelial ovarian carcinoma cell lines

BACKGROUND: To develop in vitro models of human ovarian carcinoma, fresh tumour cells derived from malignant effusions were cultured in vitro in the presence or absence of serum to establish cell lines. METHODS: Cell lines established were characterized by morphology in culture, surface marker expression, cytogenetic analysis, and growth in anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent conditions. RESULTS: Four cell lines (MAC-2, RIC-2, SCHM-1, and SIB-1) were established from tumor cells isolated from the malignant effusions of four patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma. These lines were able to grow in the presence of low concentrations of serum (3%), and two lines grew in the absence of serum (MAC-2 and SIB-1). All cell lines have been grown continuously for longer than 6 months. One cell line (SCHM-1) grew only in liquid medium whereas the other lines grew in both liquid and semi-solid media. Chromosome analysis revealed aneuploidy in three of the four lines. All of the lines stained positively for CA-125 and HMFG-2, consistent with an epithelial origin. CONCLUSION: The ability of these cells to grow in low concentrations of serum or in serum-free conditions should prove useful for the in vitro study of factors affecting the growth of human ovarian carcinoma. The serum-free medium developed will be of use in the isolation of factors from the conditioned medium of these cell lines and previously established cell lines.