An established human cell line derived from a malignant mediastinal teratoma

An established cell line derived from a human malignant mediastinal teratoma is described. The cell line was composed of slightly atypical fibroblast cells with a population-doubling time of 24 h at the exponential growth phase. The reason why the emerging cell line became fibroblastic although other tissues were present in the original tumor may be that fibroblasts so readily grow in culture. Chromosome banding showed a hypertriploid stemline number, S = 78. Almost all of the analysed karyotypes had seven markers in common. Eleven other markers, occurring at low frequency, were also detected. The origin of all markers except one could be deduced.