[Cultivation of human plasmacytoma cells]

Current knowledge of primary culturing and establishment of continuous cell lines from human plasmacytomas are reviewed. The cells derived from chronic monoclonal tumors are capable of proliferating in culture no more than for 3 weeks. The enrichment of the media with nutrient supplements and growth factors does not improve the cell survival. Most of the described stable cell lines were derived from malignancies of the late stages of tumor progression. Cell lines producing complete molecules of immunoglobulins were established with the aid of sophisticated culturing methods. The microenvironment and growth factors in culture system favoured the survival of transformed plasma cells which retained a high level of differentiation.