Long-term-cultured colon epithelial cell lines from individuals with and without colon cancer genotypes.

In 1982 the characteristics of the first epithelial line established from normal human colon mucosa were reported. The purpose of this report is to describe 5 additional lines established from individuals with and without genotypes associated with genetic predisposition for colon cancer [1 familial polyposis coli (FPC) patient, 1 hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC) patient, 2 clinically normal individuals (each at risk for one of these autosomal dominant syndromes), and 1 clinically normal individual without any family history of cancer]. The cultured cell lines had the morphologic features associated with epithelium as previously described in the 1982 report. The cell lines derived from genetically (FPC or HNPCC) predisposed individuals had three distinctive characteristics as compared to those derived from individuals without a family history of colon cancer: 1) a higher saturation density (P less than .01); 2) increased in vitro tetraploidy, an in vitro biomarker associated with genetic predisposition for colon cancer; and 3) a higher concentration of carcinoembryonic antigens (CEA) in their conditioned culture medium (P less than .01). Lines derived from normal individuals at risk for the same syndromes were found to have an increased risk status on the first two characteristics. However, the level of CEA did not increase in their culture media, which suggested that the increase in CEA was related to mucosal changes occurring in the preneoplastic sequence in colon cancer.