Establishment and characterization of patient-derived tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell lines

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a common carcinoma in Indian population, wherein one-third of global OSCC cases are from India. The five-year survival rate is poor due to late diagnosis. Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is the second-most common OSCC. An in vitro cell line model is a valuable tool to get a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in therapy resistance and disease progression. We report establishment of three OTSCC cell lines from advanced stage treatment naïve Indian patient samples, such as ACOTSC120, ACOSTC132, and ACOTSC140. All three OTSCC cell lines showed epithelial morphology, which was confirmed by Keratin-14 staining. The cell lines showed in vitro spheroid-forming and in vivo tumorigenic potential. The STR of the cell lines ensured their human origin and novelty when compared to DSMZ cell line database. The karyotype of the cell lines showed aneuploidy and further confirmed their human origin. These cell lines showed the presence of cancer stem cell (CSCs) population, i.e., the ALDH^br/CD44⁺ population. These cell lines thus provide a model to help understand the biology of disease and its progression.