[Primary culture of human bladder carcinomas and establishment of human bladder carcinoma cell line by serum-free culture].

It was possible to cultivate cells from bladder carcinoma tissues in 4 cases out of 6 without the overgrowth of fibroblast. A new human transitional cell carcinoma cell line (HAMT-1) was established in longterm tissue culture by using serum-free medium (BEM-841) which had been developed by us. The tissue for culture was taken from a 61-year-old Japanese male with grade 3 transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. The microscopic features of the cell in cultures and of the tumors developed in nude mice resembled closely that of the original tumor. Electron microscopy of the cultured cells and the tumors developed in nude mice revealed characteristics of the epithelial origin of these cells with microvilli, junctional complex and scarce filament formation. Blood TPA level of the nude mouse with the transplanted tumor was equally high as that of the patient from whom the original tumor had been taken. The cells were anchorage independent in the serum-free medium but anchorage dependent in the medium containing 5% FCS. Anchorage dependency could not be restored by the addition of collagen and fibronectin. The doubling time of the cells were 18-20 hours. The chromosome counts of the cell line ranged from 59-78 with a modal count of 74.