Characteristics of a thyroid carcinoma cell line derived from spinal metastasis

A thyroid carcinoma cell line named THY28 was established through primary culture of the surgical specimens, which were derived from a Chinese patient with spinal metastasis. The cell morphology, growth kinetics, cell cycle, chromosome number, cell capability of migration, tumorigenicity and cytogenetic features of the cell line were investigated. THY28 cells were subcultured in vitro for more than 50 passages with a human karyotype. The modal number of its chromosomes was mainly from 67 to 85. The doubling time of THY28 cells was 56 hours. The histopathological features of xenograft induced by THY28 cells were consistent with the characteristics of thyroid cancer. The biological and molecular properties of THY28 cells were not entirely consistent with those of other thyroid carcinoma cells such as SW579 and TT cells, indicating biological differences between primary and metastatic thyroid carcinoma cell lines. We have established a novel thyroid carcinoma cell line derived from spinal metastasis, which will provide a useful model for biological or therapeutic studies of thyroid carcinoma metastasis.