Tsukamoto T
Keio J Med. 1989 Sep;38(3):277-93. doi: 10.2302/kjm.38.277.
The KU-8 cell line was established from a lymph node metastasis of human squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the penis. The cells grew rapidly (doubling time 20 hours) as adherent monolayers, and were tumorigenic in nude mice. The carcinoma cells showed epithelial characteristics by observation with a phase contrast microscope. The cells retained the ultrastructural characteristics of squamous epithelium including tonofilaments and desmosomes. In addition to the morphological characteristics of SCC, this cell line preserved specific molecular markers of epithelium, such as desmoplakin, cytokeratin, and involucrin, all of which were demonstrated by immunofluorescent studies. Furthermore, SCC-related antigen (SCC-RA), a tumor marker for SCC, was produced in KU-8. Moreover, immunofluorescent study showed that KU-8 cell line expressed the specific receptor of epidermal growth factor (EGF), which turned out to increase the cell growth of KU-8. These results indicate that this new cell line could provide an excellent model for the basic research and development of new therapeutic modalities of penile carcinoma.
KU-8细胞系源自人阴茎鳞状细胞癌（SCC）的淋巴结转移灶。细胞以贴壁单层的形式快速生长（倍增时间为20小时），且在裸鼠体内具有致瘤性。通过相差显微镜观察，癌细胞呈现上皮细胞特征。这些细胞保留了鳞状上皮的超微结构特征，包括张力丝和桥粒。除了具有SCC的形态学特征外，该细胞系还保留了上皮细胞的特异性分子标志物，如桥粒斑蛋白、细胞角蛋白和外皮蛋白，所有这些均通过免疫荧光研究得以证实。此外，KU-8细胞系还产生了SCC的肿瘤标志物——SCC相关抗原（SCC-RA）。而且，免疫荧光研究表明KU-8细胞系表达表皮生长因子（EGF）的特异性受体，结果显示该受体可促进KU-8细胞的生长。这些结果表明，这个新的细胞系可为阴茎癌基础研究和新治疗方法的开发提供一个优良的模型。
