New penile squamous carcinoma cell line(CUPE-1): Characterization, tumor marker(TA-4) and growth factor study / 대한비뇨기과학회지

ABSTRACT

Chung-Ang University Penile Squamous Carcinoma cell line (CUPE-1) was established from a lymph node metastasis of human penile squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). CUPE-1 grew as adherent monolayer with a defined doubling time of 24 hours. CUPE-1 showed epithelial characterization on inverted and light microscopy and showed well developed desmosomes and tonofilaments or electron microscopy. CUPE preserved cytokeratin on immunohistochemical staining. CUPE expressed the receptor of epidermal growth factor (EGF), which stimulated the proliferation of CUPE-1 CUPE-1 showed strong tumorigenecity and/or metastatic ability when subcutaneously and intraperitoneally implanted into the nude mouse. CUPE-1 produced tumor associated antigen-4 (TA-4), a tumor marker for SCC of uterine cervix, both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, the serum level-of TA-4 were specifically increased in patients with penile SCC. These results indicate that CUPE-1 retains the characteristics of human penile SCC and could provide an excellent model for the basic research and development of new therapeutic modalities of penile cancer, and that TA-4 may become a valuable tumor marker of penile SCC.