Human renal cell carcinoma: establishment and characterization of a new cell line (OS-RC-2)

A cell line, designated as OS-RC-2, has been established from a renal cell carcinoma in a 52-yr-old Japanese male patient and maintained for 23 mo. through 60 in vitro passages. The OS-RC-2 formed monolayers of polygonal epithelial cells and lacked contact inhibition. Doubling time of cells was about 60 h at the 30th passage. Electron microscopic findings indicated numerous long microvilli on the cell surface and many glycogen granules in the cytoplasm of this cell line, which are characteristic structures of renal cell carcinoma. Chromosomal analysis revealed that a small portion of this cell line had a hypodiploid modal number of 40 and a large portion had a hypotetraploid modal number of 75. The characteristics of the karyotype were one detected marker chromosome and the translocation between the Chromosomes 2 and 13. Cell line OS-RC-2 was serially transplantable into nude mice, and histopathological findings of heterotransplanted tumor showed a close similarity to those of the original tumor. Histocompatibility antigens of OS-RC-2 were HLA-A9, Bw52, which were identical to those of the peripheral blood lymphocytes of the patient.