Establishment and characterization of three new human gestational choriocarcinoma cell lines

Three gestational choriocarcinoma cell lines (NaUCC-1, -2, and -3) were established by transplanting tumors taken from three human choriocarcinoma patients to nude mice. Anti-nude mouse rabbit serum was used to eliminate the contamination by mouse interstitial cells. Microscopically, NaUCC-1 and -2 contained few endoplasmic reticula (ER) and many ribosomes, were rich in polysomes, and showed homogenous morphology, while NaUCC-3 contained many ER and lipid-like granules, and showed variations in size. In chromosome analysis, NaUCC-1, -2 and -3 were found to be mostly hypertetraploid, hyperdiploid and hypertriploid respectively. The in vitro doubling time was close in all three lines, ranging from 20 to 25 hours. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was produced in each cell line, with the largest amount being NaUCC-3. The supernatant of each cell line contained progesterone and estrogen but not human placental lactogen (hPL). Thus, these choriocarcinoma cell lines were found to differ a little from one another.