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Growth of the malignant and nonmalignant human squamous cells in a protein-free defined medium

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Summary

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Second Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, 113, Tokyo, Japan

    Koichi Rikimaru, Hitomi Toda, Noriko Tachikawa, Nobuyuki Kamata & Shoji Enomoto

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  1. Koichi Rikimaru
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  2. Hitomi Toda
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  3. Noriko Tachikawa
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  4. Nobuyuki Kamata
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  5. Shoji Enomoto
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Rikimaru, K., Toda, H., Tachikawa, N. et al. Growth of the malignant and nonmalignant human squamous cells in a protein-free defined medium. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol 26, 849–856 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02624609

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02624609

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