Establishment of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma Cell Lines from Surgical and Recurrence Biopsy Specimens

Patients with advanced/recurrent mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) have a poor prognosis. This study aimed to establish and characterize human mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell lines from the initial surgical specimen and biopsy specimen upon recurrence from the same patient to provide a resource for MEC research. MEC specimens from the initial surgical procedure and biopsy upon recurrence were used to establish cell lines. The established cell lines were cytogenetically characterized using multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization and detection, and the sequence of the CRTC1-MAML2 chimeric gene was determined. Furthermore, the susceptibility of head and neck mucoepidermoid carcinoma to standard treatment drugs such as cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, and cetuximab was investigated. We successfully established unique MEC cell lines, AMU-MEC1, from an initial surgical specimen and AMU-MEC1-R1 and AMU-MEC1-R2 from the recurrent biopsy specimen in the same patient. These cell lines exhibited epithelial morphology and developed in vitro-like cobblestones. They shared eight chromosomal abnormalities, including der(19)ins(19;11)(p13;?), which resulted in a chimeric CRTC1-MAML2 gene, indicating the same origin of the cell lines. The susceptibility of all cell lines to cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil was low. Interestingly, EGFR dependency for cell growth decreased in AMU-MEC-R1 and AMU-MEC-R2 but was retained in AMU-MEC1. These cytogenetic and biochemical findings suggest that the established cell lines can be used to investigate the disease progression mechanisms and develop novel therapeutics for MEC.

Automated summary

This study successfully established three mucoepidermoid carcinoma cell lines and characterized their cytogenetic and biochemical features. These cell lines can be used to investigate the disease progression mechanisms and develop novel therapeutics for mucoepidermoid carcinoma.