References

Notes: Pharmacology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, TokyoFAU - Inomata, M
Abstract: The drug sensitivity of retinoblastoma cells obtained from 14 fresh primary materials (13 from enucleation and 1 from autopsy) and 2 cultured lines (Y-79 and WERI-Rb1) was determined using the human tumor clonogenic assay developed by Hamburger and Salmon. Components of the conventional soft agar medium were slightly modified to make them suitable for growing primary retinoblastoma cells. More than 5 colonies were formed by all 14 primary samples tested from the 500 X 10(3) cells plated. More than 30 colonies per dish were formed from the 13 samples, with a median plating efficiency of 0.033% (0.005-0.400), and these were used in the in vitro measurements of drug chemosensitivities. They showed homogeneous sensitivity to the representative alkylating agent L-phenylalanine mustard; 13 out of 14 showed a decrease in the colony formation of more than 70%. The other drugs which were effective (more than 70% colony inhibition) against the primary retinoblastoma cells were: doxorubicin (7 out of 13), mitomycin C (7 out of 13), actinomycin D (4 out of 13), cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (3 out of 13), nimustine (1 out of 13), and peplomycin (1 out of 13). Vincristine, bleomycin, 5-fluorouracil, methotrexate, decarbazine, and cytosine arabinoside were not effective. When the chemosensitivity of retinoblastoma cells of the two established cell lines was examined by the same method, only L-phenylalanine mustard was effective against Y-79, and no drug was effective against WERI-Rb1
Reference ID: 5981

Notes: Pharmacology Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, JapanFAU - Inomata, M This reference is duplicate with Ref ID 6009.
Abstract: Establishment of new tumor cell lines is an important first step for biological studies of tumor cells. High success rates in establishing retinoblastoma cell lines have been reported when feeder-layer culture but not liquid-culture techniques were used. Liquid culture is, however, essential for studies in which feeder-layer cells are undesirable. In a previous study, we formulated a medium (RB-- medium), the components of which were almost identical to those of a soft-agar medium developed for colony formation of established retinoblastoma cell lines, in which one cell line from 12 primary retinoblastoma specimens was established. In this study, another medium (RB++ medium), RB-- medium to which 20 microM 2-mercaptoethanol and 375 microM asparagine were added, was tested for its ability to grow retinoblastoma cells from clinical specimens. In the RB++ medium, 6 cell lines from 16 primary sites, 2 from 2 intraocular-recurrent and 3 from 3 metastatic retinoblastomas grew for over a year. The major reason for the apparent improvement of the RB++ medium on the RB-- medium was demonstrated to be the addition of 2-mercaptoethanol
Reference ID: 5982