Serum-free, defined medium ACL-4 has proven to be useful for the establishment and maintenance of human colorectal carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma cell lines. To determine the general usefulness of ACL-4 as a medium for establishing cell lines, we compared the growth of cells from many different tumor specimens in R10, ACL-4 and AR5 (ACL-4 plus 5% FBS). From June 1987 to July 1988, 69 specimens from a wide variety of human tumors were cultured in R10 and ACL-4 or AR5. Eleven cancer cell lines were established ...... seven cell lines (4 stomach carcinoma, 1 rectal carcinoma, 1 ovarian carcinoma, 1 osteosarcoma) in R10; two cell lines (1 uterine cervical cancer, 1 laryngeal carcinoma) in ACL-4; and two cell lines in AR5 (1 colon carcinoma, 1 rectal carcinoma) (Table I & 2). Of interest, two B lymphoblastoid (non-neoplastic) cell iines were established from a stomach cancer and an acute myeloblastic leukemia specimen grown in ACL-4. We have found that sodium pyruvate, transferrin, and insulin were very important for the growth of uterine cervical cancer cells. Early in this study, we also found that fibroblast growth was effectively suppressed by culturing tumor cells in the serum free medium ACL-4. Therefore, in later attempts, when possible loss of cultures by fibroblast overgrowth was observed, serum containing media were replaced by ACL-4 to suppress and eventually eliniinate the fibroblast contamination. Although we were able tu establish only 11 new cancer cell lines from 69 specimens, our study has extended the use of ACL-4 medium with or without serum for the growth of uterine cervical and laryngeal cancer cells.
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