Establishment and characterization of a new human colon cancer cell line, PUMC-CRC1

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common and fatal gastrointestinal cancers worldwide. Considering their diversity, the establishment of new continuous CRC cell lines with clear genetic backgrounds will provide useful tools for exploring molecular mechanisms, screening and evaluating antitumor drugs in CRC studies. Our de novo CRC cell line, PUMC-CRC1 (Peking Union Medical College Colorectal Cancer 1) was derived from a 47-year-old Chinese female patient diagnosed with moderately to poorly differentiated colon adenocarcinoma. Multiple experiments were used for full characterization. The new cell line was epithelial-like and was passaged for more than 40 times, with a population doubling time of 44 h in vitro, detected by cell counts. The cells exhibited complicated chromosomal abnormalities. The tumor formation rate in SCID mice was 100%. The xenograft tumor was adenocarcinoma with poor to moderate differentiation by Haematoxylin and Eosin staining (H&E) sections. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis and next-generation sequencing (NGS) revealed microsatellite stable (MSS), APC (p.T1493fs) inactivation, KRAS (p.G12V) activation, and SMAD4 (p.V506A) mutation. Quality control of the cell line proved mycoplasma negative and identical STR profile with that of the original tissue, and no interspecific or intraspecific cross contamination was detected. In conclusion, PUMC-CRC1 was a newly established and well characterized human colon cancer cell line, which might be a good model for both in vitro and in vivo studies of the mechanism of colon cancer progression and the treatment strategies for MSS CRC.