Establishment and characterization of MACL-1 and MGSO-3 cell lines derived from human primary breast cancer

Breast cancer is a major health burden worldwide. It is responsible for over 1 million of 10 million cases of cancer in the world. Advances in breast cancer detection and treatment have contributed to improve the rate of survival, although mortality rates remains significantly high. Despite all these advances, more efficient diagnostic methods and effective treatments are necessary. The establishment of breast cancer cell lines is an important tool to understand biological processes involved in this disease, as well as the identification of potential therapeutic targets. In the present work, two cell lines, MACL-1 and MGSO-3, were established from human primary breast cancer based on differential centrifugation, followed by growth in culture for over 70 passages. Characterization of the cell lines included morphology analysis, determination of doubling time, telomerase expression, tumor antigen expression, colony formation in soft agar, and xenograft implantation into nude mice. Morphological examination demonstrated a typical epithelial morphology and PCR analyses showed that both cell lines were telomerase positives. Moreover, MACL-1 and MGSO-3 were capable of growing in soft agar culture, which suggests its metastatic potential, and both demonstrated a positive tumorigenic potential in nude mice. These experimental models open new perspectives on the investigation of breast cancer pathobiology.