Establishment and Characterization of a Human Gastric Carcinoma Cell Line TMC-1

Established cancer cell lines are useful in the study of various cancers. We established a human gastric carcinoma cell line TMC-1 derived from the lymph node of a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the stomach. TMC-1 cells grew in vitro as a mixture of attached and suspension cells, and exhibited spindle or ovoid morphology. They had a population doubling time of 15 h, a plating efficiency of 61%, formed colonies in semisolid agar, secreted the tumor marker CA 19-9, and were tumorigenic in athymic nude mice. The cells expressed E-cadherin and β-catenin. The karyotypic analysis demonstrated hyperdiploid features with a modal chromosome of 53. The cell had the deletion at chromosome 18q and gains at chromosome 2p13–25, 5p15, 5q21–35, 7, 8q24, 9q, 11, 12p, 14q24–32 and 20. Analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization showed the deletion at 7qtel and duplication at 7q11.2 at the rearranged chromosome 7. Growth of TMC-1 cells was inhibited by 27–32% by interferon-α (2,000 U/ml) and by interferon-γ with an IC50 of 125 U/ml. The cell line is tumorigenic in vivo, and its growth is moderately inhibited by interferon-α and interferon-γ. It can be used to develop new modalities of human gastric cancer treatment.