Establishment and biological properties of a guinea pig colonic adenocarcinoma cell line induced by N-methyl-N-nitrosourea.

A colonic adenocarcinoma cell line, designated GPC-16, was established in culture from tissue removed from an outbred guinea pig which received 56 mg of N-methyl-N-nitrosourea intrarectally over a 28-week period. the GPC-16 has been maintained for more than 30 in vitro passages and was tumorigenic in both the autochthonous host and nude mice. The cells were aneuploid with a wide range in chromosome number (54 to 172) in a bimodal distribution. The cells grew in vitro as a tight monolayer and demonstrated numerous desmosomes by electron microscopy. In vitro-passaged cells had a doubling time of 36 hr and a 5.1% plating efficiency in agar.