[Establishment and characterization of TA-4 producing cell line (OMC-1) originating from a human squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix].

A new human cell line designated OMC-1 was established from a metastatic lesion of Virchow lymph node of a large cell non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. OMC-1 was successively subcultured 30 times in about 15 months. The monolayer cultured cells appeared to be epithelial with a pavement-like arrangement and tendency to pile up without contact inhibition. Electronmicroscopy showed desmosomes and well-developed tonofilaments. The population doubling time was 43-70 hours, the saturation density was 1.3-1.7 X 10(5) cells/cm2, the plating efficiency was 23-25% and the mitotic index was 3.3-4.8%. Chromosome studies showed aneuploidy and a modal number of 45. After subcutaneous transplantation into nude mice, the cells grew into solid large cell non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinomas. By the flow cytometric analysis, the phase fractions of the cells was G1 + G0 = 40.1%, S = 24.9% and G2 + M = 35.0%. The OMC-1 cells produced TA-4 in culture media. TA-4 was also demonstrated immunohistochemically in the original tumor tissue, cultured cells and tumors in nude mice.