Establishment of functional epithelial cell lines from a rat thymoma and a rat thymus

Seven clonal epithelial cell lines from a thymoma of an (ACI/NMs x BUF/Mna)F1 rat and seven clonal epithelial cell lines from an ACI/NMs rat thymus were established in a medium containing 1 microM dexamethasone (DM) and were characterized cytologically. Long-term treatment of DM stabilized the epithelial nature of these epithelial cells irreversibly. The established cell lines showed a polygonal shape, were positively stained with antikeratin antiserum and had tonofilaments and desmosomes. Species of their keratin peptides were the same as those of normal thymic epithelial cells in primary cultures. The cell lines were positively stained with Th-4 monoclonal antibody which preferentially stains the medullary epithelial cells of the thymus, but not with Th-3 which preferentially stains the subcapsular and cortical epithelial cells of the thymus. The cells from the rat thymoma were much larger than those from the normal thymus, as reflected in their primary cultures. No transformed phenotypes, such as high growth rate, high saturation density, anchorage independency, low serum dependency and so on, were found in the cell lines from the thymoma as in the cell lines from the normal thymus by in vitro assays. DNA synthesis of the thymic lymphocytes was stimulated by culturing with a line of rat thymoma with no lectins. Thymic lymphocytes strongly bound on the cell lines from the thymoma and changed the shape of the cells. These cell lines may be useful to investigate the mechanism of thymomagenesis and the interactions between epithelial cells and thymocytes in the rat thymoma.