Establishment and characterization of a new human cell line (EJ) derived from endometrial carcinoma

We present a new cell line, EJ established from an invasive endometrioid adenocarcinoma of the uterine corpus in a 56-year-old patient. The cells show rapid growth in culture with a doubling time of 16 h and high migration activity. Monolayer-cultured cells were polygonal in shape showing a tendency to pile up without contact inhibition. Subcutaneous transplantation of the EJ cells into nude mice formed solid tumors that were histologically diagnosed as adenocarcinoma, whereas no metastasis was observed. Cultured EJ cells produced tissue polypeptide antigen (IPA). Genetic and molecular analyses revealed high telomerase activity but not estrogen receptor alpha expression. Using the DNA sequencing technique, we have screened EJ cells for p53 mutation in exon 5 to 8 but no mutation of p53 was observed. This cell line appears to represent the development of a more malignant clone with divergent receptor function and growth behavior, and provides us with an interesting new tool for the study of tumorigenesis in the human endometrium.