| Abstract |
In vitro cultures of 50 cases of human brain tumors gave rise to 5 cell
lines maintained for more than 1 year. Four lines (KMG-2, KMG-3, KMG-4,
KMG-5) were from malignant astrocytoma and 1 line (KMS II) was from
ependymoma. These 5 cell lines were studied on the following items: light
and electron microscopy, growth characteristics, chromosome analysis,
immunocytochemical staining of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP),
S-100 protein, and vimentin, 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphohydrolase
(CNPase) activity, and tumorigenicity in nude mice. These investigations
showed heterogeneity and undifferentiated character of the cell lines.
Only KMG-5 line still had high percentage of GFAP-positive cells (about 30%),
whereas the other cell lines contained 0 to a few percent of them. On
the other hand, vimentin was demonstrated in the cytoplasm of all cells of
the 5 lines. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
(SDS-PAGE) of cytoskeletal pre-paration further confirmed this observation.
All of the 5 lines had a 57,000 dalton protein (vimentin), whereas
immunoblotting analysis of GFAP demonstrated a distinct 51,000 dalton
protein (GFAP) in only KMG-5 line. Two lines (KMG-4 and KMS II) were found
to have tumorigenicity in nude mice and the transplanted tumors maintained
some characteristic features of the original tumors.
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