Abstract
Purpose: :
To establish and characterize a new human retinoblastoma cell line from a patient with primary retinoblastoma nearly occupying vitreous cavity.
Methods: :
An eye with retinoblastoma was obtained from a 2–year–old Korean child with primary retinoblastoma nearly occupying vitreous cavity. After digestion, the cells were cultured in RPMI–1640 media with 10% FBS. Tumorigenicity of the cell line was determined by intravitreous heterotransplanting in nude mice. The established cell line was characterized for cell morphology, cell growth, immunohistochemistry for GFAP & NSE, and CGH. This cell line was compared with Y79, a human retinoblastoma cell line established at another institution.
Results: :
Innoculation of the cell line into intravitreous cavity of nude mice produced a transplantable retinoblastoma, similar to the original tumor. The cell line spontaneously attached on the plates and grew as small round cells, different from Y79, growing as a suspension of tumor cells. The population doubling time was 30 hour, similar to or slightly lower than Y79. The cell line was immunoreactive all for GFAP & NSE like Y79. The data from CGH showed clonal heterogeneity of the established cell line, comparing to Y79.
Conclusions: :
The established cell line may be a promising model to understand molecular pathogenic investigation of retinoblastoma.
Keywords: retinoblastoma • tumors • pathology: human