Long-term Serial Cell Cultivation of Human Brain Tumor in Vitro

Abstract

Continuous cell cultivation was tried on the surgical biopsy specimens from 40 clinical brain tumor cases and only one long-termed culture was obtained from a case of astrocytoma. The culture has so far been maintained 39 passages for 297 days and showed a pseudo-diploid character which consistently had three marker chromosomes. As a reference experiment, normal diploid cells were isolated from the cerebellar cortex of a human embryo and maintained in vitro. By comparison with this reference experiment in culture history, growth characteristics and chromosome constitution, it was strongly suggested that the long-termed culture has established a cell line. As to the drug sensitivity, the cells in the long-termed culture were more sensitive to Vinblastine than the normal cells in vitro, while both the cells had a similar sensitivity to Japanese encephalitis virus. © 1974, Tohoku University Medical Press. All rights reserved.