Karyotypic analysis of two related cervical carcinoma cell lines that contain human papillomavirus type 18 DNA and express divergent differentiation.

The cell lines C-4I and C-4II were established in culture from a nonkeratinizing squamous carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Both lines contain human papillomavirus (HPV) type 18 DNA (Brandt et al., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, 5:179, 1987) and both are hypodiploid with similar, but not identical, karyotypes. Each line expresses multiple characteristics of ectocervical epithelial differentiation, but the characteristics differ between the lines. In the present study, G banding of the lines showed that cells of both lines have two normal chromosomes 1-5, 8-10, 13, 16, and 17, one normal chromosome 12 and 14, and no normal chromosomes 15 and 18. The lines share three abnormal chromosomes, der(8)t(8q;12q), der(18)t(18q;?), and i(5p). There are specific differences between the lines. C-4I has two normal chromosomes 6, while C-4II has one; C-4II has two chromosomes 11 and der(18)t(18q;?), while C-4I lacks both chromosomes 11 and has one der(18)t(18q;?). Each line has unique markers that include del(11)(p11), del(22)(q12), and del(21)(q21) in C-4I and i(15q), der(X)t(Xq;9p), der(6)t(6p;14q), and del(4)(q21) in C-4II. The results show that these phenotypically distinct lines are derived from the same clone and that the 8q arm (the site of HPV 18 integration) is present in three copies in both lines. They also define several chromosome rearrangements that are compatible with the expression of specific differentiation markers.