Establishment of a human meningeal cell line in culture

A human metastatic meningiosarcoma has been established as a cell line as follows: At autopsy performed 12 hours after death, tumour nodules from the left parietal pleura were obtained under sterile conditions, minced and inoculated into culture vessels. The cells obtained were cloned, and clones with abnormal chromosome stemlines ascertained by G-, C-, and N-banding techniques were then injected subcutaneously into nude mice of the NMRI and BALB/c strains. Tumour nodules from the athymic mice were also minced, established as cell cultures and maintained for further studies. In vitro cytogenetical analysis showed variations in chromosome numbers per cell ranging from 23 to 126; whereas flow cytometric measurements of DNA-specific fluorescence during exponential cell growth in vitro demonstrated the presence of 3 well defined DNA classes around 3C, 6C, and 12C. The xenografts still retained the particular morphological and structural characteristics of the primary tumour, as analyzed by histological sections. The permanent growth integrity of the established meningiosarcoma should render its utilization as a model system for biological studies possible.