Background: To provide an HGPRT ( hypoxanthine guanidine phosphoribosyl transferase)-defective cell line for the establishment of lung cancer and dendritic cell( DC) fused vaccine.
Methods: The HGPRT-defective cell line was gradually induced by 8-AG ( 8-azaguanine) from the Lewis lung carcinoma cell line( L3-8) . Its biological characteristics and tumorigenicity were observed in vivo and in vitro.
Results: The HGPRT-defective cell line, AL9901, was obtained after one year of selective culture and identification. AL9901 cell line could grow steadily in 20mg/ L 8-AG, but not in HAT selective medium. The chromosome modal numbers of AL9901 and L3-8 cell line were 58 and 62 respectively, lung metastatic rates were 30%( 3/ 10) and 70%( 7/ 10) respectively, and their tumorigenic rates were both 100%( 10/ 10) .
Conclusions: The HGPRT-defective cell line, AL9901, maintains the biolog ical characteristics and carcinogenicity of the L3-8 cell line. It can be used as a parental antigenic cell for the establishment of Lewis lung carcinoma-DC fused tumor vaccine.