Establishment and characteristics of a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line.

A permanent cell line (HLC-1) was established from the pleural effusion of a human lung adenocarcinoma. The cell line was characterized by the monolayered and multilayered organoid growth of epithelioid cells with the doubleing time of about 33 hr and the modal chromosome number of 68. Cloning efficiency was 17.9% in liquid medium and 8.3% in soft agar. The cell produced a large amount of epithelial mucin. Electron microscopic examination revealed many secretory granules and terminal bars. They formed spherical aggregates in a gyratory culture which showed adenocarcinoma-like tubular structures histologically. Enzyme-histolochemically, they showed the characteristics of lung adenocarcinoma cells except for a few enzymes such as glucose-6-phosphatase and ATPase. Heterotransplantation of the cells produced the tumor. These characteristics confirm that HLC-1 cell line is a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line.