Establishment and characterization of clear cell renal cell carcinoma cell lines with different metastatic potential from Chinese patients

Background: Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) cell lines with distinct metastatic potential are essential to study the mechanism of ccRCC metastasis. However, none of them originated from Chinese. Methods: Primary cell cultures were performed using a primary tumor of a 49-year-old male ccRCC patient and a metastatic tumor of a 62-year-old male patient who had received nephrectomy to excise primary ccRCC 10 years ago. Cell growth, microstructure, cytogenetics, cytometry, expression of metastasis-associated molecules, tumorigenesis and metastasis were subsequently characterized. Results: Two successive cell lines named NRCC from the primary ccRCC and MRCC from the metastatic ccRCC were established, respectively. Compared to NRCC, MRCC exhibited stronger anchorage-independent growth and invasion potentials and contained more glycogen granules in the cytoplasm. Gains of chromosomes and some translocations were the major chromosomal aberrations in both cell strains. CD24 expression was more frequent in MRCC than in NRCC and the same was true for CD56. The transcriptional levels of TNF alpha, IL-6, VEGF, HIF2 alpha, MMP2, and RhoC were significantly higher in MRCC than in NRCC. Cytosolic I kappa B alpha protein was more degraded in MRCC than in NRCC following TNF alpha treatment. Both cell lines had strong tumorigenicity in athymic nude mice. However, MRCC had strong potential in generating metastasis to lung and hemorrhagic ascites than NRCC following orthotopic transplantations. Conclusions: Cancer cells isolated from metastatic ccRCC have more malignant and metastatic potential than those from the primary tumor from the patients who shared the similar race background. Establishment of MRCC and NRCC may provide suitable models with which to investigate molecular mechanisms of ccRCC metastasis.