Establishment and characterization of human gingival squamous cell carcinoma cell line NOCS-1

• Published in: Human cell : official journal of Human Cell Research Society Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 75 - 82
• Main Authors: Takahashi, Haruka, Watanabe, Miho, Ohyama, Akihiro, Toyomura, Junko, Tachibana, Toshiaki, Tanaka, Akira, Ishikawa, Hiroshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.01.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell adhesion; Cell Biology; Cell Line; Chemotherapy; Contact inhibition; Epithelial cells; Gynecology; Immunotherapy; Life Sciences; Melanin; Oncology; Reproductive Medicine; Squamous cell carcinoma; Stem Cells; Surgery; Tumors; Xenografts; Anticancer drug susceptibility tests; Xenograft; Gingival squamous cell carcinoma; Cell line; G establishment
• ISSN: 1749-0774; 0914-7470; 1749-0774
• DOI: 10.1007/s13577-018-0216-z

The NOCS-1 cell line was established from the left gingiva tumor in an 86-year-old Japanese man. Histopathological diagnosis of the original tumor was well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. NOCS-1 cells were adhesive epithelial cells with neoplastic or pleomorphic features and grew without contact inhibition. It has been subcultured 70 times during the past 26 months. From passage 3, melanin-containing cells began to be observed in the NOCS-1 cell line. The plating efficiencies were 25% and 23%, doubling times were 29 and 26 h, and saturation densities were 6.9 × 10 4 /cm 2 and 8.7 × 10 4 /cm 2 , at passage 12 and 30, respectively. When NOCS-1 cells were xenotransplanted subcutaneously into SCID mice, they produced tumors that histopathologically resembled the original tumor. In addition, NOCS-1-XG cells derived from the xenotransplanted tumor were similar to NOCS-1 cells. We believe that this cell line may be a valuable tool to develop immunotherapy and chemotherapy regimens.