Abstract
BACKGROUND: Thymomas are the most frequent tumors of the anterior part of the mediastinum. However, therapeutic progress is hampered by a deficiency of appropriate pre-clinical models and the complexity of the disease. In this study, we develop a new cell line, designated as T-AB-1, which was established from a patient with World Health Organization (WHO) type AB. The study is to establish a new human thymoma cell line and to provide an experiment model for research on thymoma. METHODS: Surgically resected specimen of a case of thymoma of type AB was collected. After primary culture and cloning, a cell line designated as T-AB-1 was established and its biological features were investigated, including morphology, ultrastructure, growth kinetic features, tumorigenicity to nude mice and expression of epithelial cell markers. RESULTS: Cell lines were considered to be established after 15 passages. Cell lines have maintained an in vitro culture for more than 36 months (3 years).The cell line grew continuously in vitro with a doubling time of 35.2 h and was passaged over 50 times. The thymoma cells possessed the morphology and structure features of epithelial cells. The cell line showed tumorigenicity to nude mice and the histologic features of the tumors developed were similar to the origin tumor from which the cell line derived. The xenografted tumor exhibited the characteristics of thymoma type AB. The T-AB-1 cell line showed a stronger reaction to epithelial markers (such as pan-cytokeratin, CK8, CK18, CK19 and so on) and weaker reaction to B- and T-cell lineage markers. CONCLUSIONS: All findings and evidence in this experimental study suggested that this cell line might be a useful model in vitro in cellular and molecular studies as well as in testing novel therapies for human thymoma.