Characterization of a continuous human glioma cell line DBTRG-05MG: growth kinetics, karyotype, receptor expression,...

The establishment of a new glioma cell line, DBTRG-05MG, in a modified RPMI 1640 medium is described. The cells were derived from an adult female with glioblastoma multiforme who had been treated with local brain irradiation and multidrug chemotherapy; the tumor showed substantial change in histologic appearance compared to the original biopsy 13 mo. previously. The line has been successfully cryopreserved and passaged up to 20 times. The karyotype of the cells demonstrated it as a hypotetraploid line; the DNA index of 1.9 confirmed the karyotype analyses. By immunocytochemical analysis, the cell line reacted with polyclonal antibodies to vimentin, S100, and neuron specific enolase, reflecting its primitive neuroectodermal character. Positive immunostaining for epidermal growth factor receptor correlated with the excess of chromosome 7 seen in the karyotype. The cell line reacted negatively to antibodies against platelet-derived growth factor and its receptor, neuronal cell adhesion molecule, and glial fibrillary acidic protein. By flow cytometry, the cells were major histocompatibility class I antigen positive and class I antigen negative. Growth kinetic studies demonstrated an approximate population doubling time of 34 to 41 h and a colony forming efficiency of 71.4%. Western blot analysis showed the presence of low levels of normal-sized retinoblastoma protein. When compared to the patient's lymphocyte DNA, no loss of heterozygosity of the p53 tumor suppressor gene was observed in the DBTRG-05MG cell line DNA.