ABSTRACT
Seven human serous ovarian atypically proliferating tumors (tumors of borderline malignancy) were grown in primary culture and compared morphologically with established cell lines derived from serous carcinomas (stage III-IV). Several parameters were investigated in order to establish the place of these tumors in a neoplastic spectrum between benign and frankly malignant serous neoplasms. The atypically proliferating tumors showed serous features, including prominent microvilli and multiple cilia, similar to those found in the malignant serous cells. DNA flow cytometric studies of the atypically proliferating tumors showed them to be diploid. Keratins were strongly expressed immunohistochemically by all the atypically proliferating tumors. Vimentin was also detected in six of the original tumors but only in one primary culture. The capacity to culture and study cells which represent possible intermediate stages in the evolution of ovarian malignancy may prove useful as an in vitro model for this disease.
ABSTRACT
Two cell lines, NF and JoN, derived from human ovarian carcinosarcomas, were established in tissue culture and in nude mice. Both lines, growing in monolayers, showed morphologic features of adenocarcinoma cells (NF being aneuploid with a modal number of 53, and JoN being pseudodiploid with a modal number of 44). Intermediate filaments were demonstrated immunohistochemically; the JoN line expressed keratin, but not vimentin or desmin, whereas the NF line expressed vimentin and desmin, but not keratin. Plasminogen activator activity was found in both lines. It is concluded that both of these lines are potentially useful models for studying the diverse characteristics of malignant mixed Müllerian tumors.
