Establishment and characterization of patient-derived primary cell lines as preclinical models for gallbladder carcinoma.

backgroundGallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is one of the most lethal malignancies which do not have a targeted drug in the clinic. Patient-derived primary cell lines (PDCs) are useful in assessment of cancer complexity and heterogeneity, drug-sensitivity tests, and personalized-drug-selection guidance. The aim of this study is to establish GBC PDCs and characterize their biological features.

methodsThe characterization of PDCs was defined by morphology, growth kinetics, chromosomal analysis, short tandem repeat (STR) analysis, RNA-seq and tumorigenicity. Glycosylation of PDCs derived from GBC was first studied, and the PDC model's performance were also tested and evaluated using seven molecular target inhibitors.

resultsThree novel GBC cell lines from three GBC patients were successfully established and denoted as JXQ-3D-902R4, JXQ-3D-4494R, and JXQ-3D-4786R. These cell lines demonstrated the heterogeneous characteristics of tumor morphology and phenotypes which are consistent with primary GBC, such as irregular cell shape, varied chromosomal numbers, and different STR patterns. Moreover, the growth activity and tumorigenicity ability varied among the cell lines, of which JXQ-3D-4494R exhibited the best growth rate. Furthermore, glycan profiling of whole proteins were detected and characterized. Unique N-glycans of each PDC were identified, JXQ-3D-902R4, JXQ-3D-4494R and JXQ-3D-4786R contained ten, four and seven unique glycans, respectively. The epithelial origins of three PDCs were confirmed using RNA-seq based on the highly expressed typical epithelial marker genes. Moreover, the drug-sensitivity results demonstrated that the three PDCs exhibited different responses to the seven-most commonly used targeted medicines belonging to three groups: cell-cycle inhibitors, PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling-pathway inhibitors, and ErbB inhibitors. JXQ-3D-4494R was sensitive to most of the inhibitors, JXQ-3D-4786R was sensitive to ErbB inhibitors, and JXQ-3D-902R4 was sensitive to PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors.

conclusionsThese results indicate that PDCs may be efficient preclinical models for further investigation of the biological behaviors and potential targeted therapies of human GBC.