Effects of insulin, transferrin, cholera toxin, and epidermal growth factor on growth and morphology of human fetal normal colon epithelial cells.

Primary and serially passaged human fetal normal colon epithelial cells have been propagated and characterized with regard to their nature and origin. The cells exhibited many characteristics of colonic epithelial cells including the presence of mucopolysaccharides and carcinoembryonic antigen. Serial passaging of the cultures required supplementing the medium with insulin, transferrin, epidermal growth factor, and cholera toxin. This study also shows that these factors have specific roles in the regulation of growth and morphologic differentiation of the cell cultures. Insulin apparently is mainly associated with cell multiplication, whereas transferrin, epidermal growth factor, and cholera toxin are associated with the maintenance of morphologic differentiation status of the cell cultures.