Establishment and characterization of a human primary prostate carcinoma cell line, HH870.

Background: Development of new therapeutic modalities for human prostate carcinoma has been impeded by a lack of adequate in vitro and in vivo models. Most in vitro studies have been carried out using a limited number of human prostate cancer cell lines that are mostly derived from metastatic tumors sites or are immortalized.

Methods: Characterization of the prostate cancer cell line, HH870, included description of morphology, determination of doubling time, response to androgens, immunocytochemistry, and immunoblotting of proteins known to be associated with prostate carcinoma, karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), DNA profiling, and growth as xenograft in athymic rodents.

Results: HH870 expresses various epithelial marker antigens that correlate with known basic immunostaining profiles of prostate adenocarcinoma, although the cell line does not express PSA, PSMA, or PAP. HH870 exhibits complex chromosomal abnormalities and harbors no immortalizing HPV, BKV, JCV, and SV40 DNA.

Conclusions: We report the successful establishment and characterization of a new long-term primary human prostate tumor cell line HH870.