Establishment and characterization of a new human esophageal cancer cell line (YES-1).

A new human esophageal cancer cell line (YES-1) was established from a subcutaneous tumor implanted into nude mice, which had been transplanted from a surgical specimen obtained 50-year-old Japanese male patient. This cell line has been maintained for 33 months through 94 passages with stable growth. YES-1 cells are mainly polygonal-to-spindle shaped, have eosinophilic cytoplasm and oval-to-round nuclei with some prominent nucleoli. There are also some cells having clear cytoplasm and round nuclei with prominent nucleoli. The cells proliferate in a pavement-like cell arrangement and show a lack of contact inhibition. The doubling time at the 33rd passage was 35.2 hours. YES-1 cells produce carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC antigen) and tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) as tumor markers. Chromosome study have shown that the chromosome number ranges from 47 to 54 with a mode of 51. Tumorigenicity has been identified by the development of tumors after the subcutaneous injection of YES-1 cells into nude mice, which were found to be similar to the original tumor on histological examination. Thus, these findings indicate that the YES-1 cell line is available as a new human esophageal cancer cell line which should be useful for various studies.