Factors affecting the CEA secretion of human adenocarcinoma cell lines into the spent medium.

CEA producing cell lines were established from human gastric cancer (HGC-Y1), pancreatic cancer (HPC-Y9) and lung cancer (HLC-Y1). The culture medium was used RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. The secretion of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) into the spent medium from these cultured cell lines was modified by several factors, such as theophylline, cyclic AMP (cAMP), dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP), Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and human interferon (INF). CEA secretion was enhanced by theophylline, cAMP, PGE2 and INF. Theophylline had an optimal dose to maximally enhance CEA secretion. cAMP and INF apparently enhanced CEA secretion dose dependently. PGE2 appeared to enhance CEA secretion, although cell growth was markedly suppressed dose dependently, dbcAMP, DMSO and BrdUrd did not affect CEA secretion. Here, the kinetics of CEA secretion was discussed.