title: Growth of the malignant and nonmalignant human squamous cells in a protein-free defined medium.
abstract: A novel protein-free synthetic medium has been developed for the culture of human squamous cell carcinoma cells. This medium, designated PF86-1, supports the serial subcultivation of six out of nine human squamous cell carcinoma cell lines in a protein-free, chemically defined condition without the adapting culture from serum-containing conditions. These cell lines growing in PF86-1 exhibited nearly equal potency to grow in massive culture without noticeable changes in morphology but presented a significantly decreased level of colony forming efficiency when compared with the cells cultured in serum-containing media, suggesting the implication of some autocrine mechanism. Interestingly, this medium supported the growth of normal human squamous cells of oral mucosa and skin for more than 2 mo. in the primary explant culture in spite of high levels of calcium ion concentration, where the overgrowth of fibroblasts as contaminant was not observed. These results suggest that PF86-1 supports the growth of cells derived from epidermal tissues selectively and provides the same defined condition for growth of malignant and nonmalignant human squamous cells. It seems, therefore, that PF86-1 allows investigations on the products of squamous cell carcinoma cells or on the differences of growth mechanisms between normal and neoplastic human squamous cells.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rikimaru
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toda
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tachikawa
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamata
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Enomoto
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D002455:Cell Division; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000166:cytology*; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media