HPC-36: an epithelial tissue culture line derived from human prostate adenocarcinoma.

The development of a tissue culture line of human prostate adenocarcinoma has been described. The culture (HPC-36), derived from tumor tissue explants, is purely epithelial, with characteristics of neoplastic cells. These include a large nuclear size relative to the amount of cytoplasm, multiple nucleoli within the nucleus, many mitotic figures, the formation of multinucleated giant cells, and loss of contact inhibition. The cells also stained positively for acid phosphatase and have been grown in monolayer and suspension cultures. The HPC-36 cells are presently being studied to determine whether they are true descendants of the cancer cells.