Skip to main content
PMC home page
The American Journal of Pathology logoLink to The American Journal of Pathology
. 1993 Mar;142(3):893–905.

Morphology and growth characteristics of epithelial cells from classic Wilms' tumors.

D J Hazen-Martin 1, A J Garvin 1, T Gansler 1, B I Tarnowski 1, D A Sens 1
PMCID: PMC1886803  PMID: 8384407

Abstract

The ability to establish cell cultures representing the epithelial component of Wilms' tumor was determined for 18 cases of classic Wilms' tumors. From these 18 cases only two resulted in the culture of epithelial cells. Although the tumors from both cases were composed of a prominent epithelial component, other classic tumors not producing epithelial cell cultures also possessed appreciable epithelial components. Likewise, heterotransplants of these two primary tumors failed to give rise to epithelial cell cultures, although cultures of the blastemal element were produced. This suggests that Wilms' tumors may be prone to differentiate in different directions at varying times during tumor growth, possibly dependent on local tumor environment. Epithelial cells from these two classic cases were grown in culture in basal medium composed of a 1:1 mixture of Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium and Ham's F-12 medium, supplemented with selenium, insulin, transferrin, hydrocortisone, tri-iodothyronine, and epidermal growth factor, on a collagen type I matrix with absorbed fetal calf serum proteins. One of the two cases also required the addition of bovine pituitary extract, ethanolamine, prostaglandin E1, and putrescine for optimum growth. Morphological analysis disclosed that the cultured cells were very similar to normal renal tubular cells in culture, except that the cells displayed little evidence for differentiated active ion transport and tended to grow in a multilayered arrangement. The culture of the epithelial cells from classic Wilms' tumors provides a model system for the study of tumor differentiation and progression.

Full text

PDF
896

Images in this article

899Figure 2
on p.899
899Figure 3
on p.899
899Figure 4
on p.899
900Figure 5
on p.900
900Figure 6
on p.900
900Figure 7
on p.900
901Figure 8
on p.901
901Figure 9
on p.901
902Figure 10
on p.902
903Figure 11
on p.903
903Figure 12
on p.903

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beckwith J. B., Kiviat N. B., Bonadio J. F. Nephrogenic rests, nephroblastomatosis, and the pathogenesis of Wilms' tumor. Pediatr Pathol. 1990;10(1-2):1–36. doi: 10.3109/15513819009067094. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Blackburn J. G., Hazen-Martin D. J., Detrisac C. J., Sens D. A. Electrophysiology and ultrastructure of cultured human proximal tubule cells. Kidney Int. 1988 Feb;33(2):508–516. doi: 10.1038/ki.1988.27. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brissenden J. E., Ullrich A., Francke U. Human chromosomal mapping of genes for insulin-like growth factors I and II and epidermal growth factor. 1984 Aug 30-Sep 5Nature. 310(5980):781–784. doi: 10.1038/310781a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Call K. M., Glaser T., Ito C. Y., Buckler A. J., Pelletier J., Haber D. A., Rose E. A., Kral A., Yeger H., Lewis W. H. Isolation and characterization of a zinc finger polypeptide gene at the human chromosome 11 Wilms' tumor locus. Cell. 1990 Feb 9;60(3):509–520. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90601-a. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chung S. D., Alavi N., Livingston D., Hiller S., Taub M. Characterization of primary rabbit kidney cultures that express proximal tubule functions in a hormonally defined medium. J Cell Biol. 1982 Oct;95(1):118–126. doi: 10.1083/jcb.95.1.118. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Detrisac C. J., Sens M. A., Garvin A. J., Spicer S. S., Sens D. A. Tissue culture of human kidney epithelial cells of proximal tubule origin. Kidney Int. 1984 Feb;25(2):383–390. doi: 10.1038/ki.1984.28. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gansler T., Allen K. D., Burant C. F., Inabnett T., Scott A., Buse M. G., Sens D. A., Garvin A. J. Detection of type 1 insulinlike growth factor (IGF) receptors in Wilms' tumors. Am J Pathol. 1988 Mar;130(3):431–435. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gansler T., Hsu W. C., Gramling T. S., Robinson K. A., Buse M. G., Blocker N., Roy L., Green S., Garvin A. J., Sens D. A. Growth factor binding and bioactivity in human kidney epithelial cell cultures. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol. 1990 Mar;26(3 Pt 1):285–290. doi: 10.1007/BF02624459. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Garvin A. J., Congleton L., Inabnett T., Gansler T., Sens D. A. Growth characteristics of human Wilms' tumor in nude mice. Pediatr Pathol. 1988;8(6):599–615. doi: 10.3109/15513818809022317. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Garvin A. J., Sullivan J. L., Bennett D. D., Stanley W. S., Inabnett T., Sens D. A. The in vitro growth, heterotransplantation, and immunohistochemical characterization of the blastemal component of Wilms' tumor. Am J Pathol. 1987 Nov;129(2):353–363. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Garvin A. J., Surrette F., Hintz D. S., Rudisill M. T., Sens M. A., Sens D. A. The in vitro growth and characterization of the skeletal muscle component of Wilms' tumor. Am J Pathol. 1985 Nov;121(2):298–310. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Grundy P., Koufos A., Morgan K., Li F. P., Meadows A. T., Cavenee W. K. Familial predisposition to Wilms' tumour does not map to the short arm of chromosome 11. Nature. 1988 Nov 24;336(6197):374–376. doi: 10.1038/336374a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Hazen-Martin D. J., Chao C. C., Wang I. Y., Sens D. A., Garvin A. J., Wang A. C. Developmental pattern of Thy-1 immunoreactivity in the human kidney and the application to pediatric renal neoplasms. Pediatr Pathol. 1993 Jan-Feb;13(1):37–52. doi: 10.3109/15513819309048191. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hennigar R. A., Garvin A. J., Hazen-Martin D. J., Schulte B. A. Immunohistochemical localization of transport mediators in Wilms' tumor: comparison with fetal and mature human kidney. Lab Invest. 1989 Aug;61(2):192–201. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Hennigar R. A., Sens D. A., Spicer S. S., Schulte B. A., Newman V., Sens M. A., Garvin A. J. Lectin histochemistry of nephroblastoma (Wilms' tumour). Histochem J. 1985 Oct;17(10):1091–1110. doi: 10.1007/BF01002535. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Hennigar R. A., Spicer S. A., Sens D. A., Othersen H. B., Jr, Garvin A. J. Histochemical evidence for tubule segmentation in a case of Wilms' tumor. Am J Clin Pathol. 1986 Jun;85(6):724–731. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/85.6.724. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Huff V., Compton D. A., Chao L. Y., Strong L. C., Geiser C. F., Saunders G. F. Lack of linkage of familial Wilms' tumour to chromosomal band 11p13. Nature. 1988 Nov 24;336(6197):377–378. doi: 10.1038/336377a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Koufos A., Grundy P., Morgan K., Aleck K. A., Hadro T., Lampkin B. C., Kalbakji A., Cavenee W. K. Familial Wiedemann-Beckwith syndrome and a second Wilms tumor locus both map to 11p15.5. Am J Hum Genet. 1989 May;44(5):711–719. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Leof E. B., Wharton W., van Wyk J. J., Pledger W. J. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) and somatomedin C regulate G1 progression in competent BALB/c-3T3 cells. Exp Cell Res. 1982 Sep;141(1):107–115. doi: 10.1016/0014-4827(82)90073-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Mierau G. W., Beckwith J. B., Weeks D. A. Ultrastructure and histogenesis of the renal tumors of childhood: an overview. Ultrastruct Pathol. 1987;11(2-3):313–333. doi: 10.3109/01913128709048329. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Osborne C. K., Hamilton B., Titus G., Livingston R. B. Epidermal growth factor stimulation of human breast cancer cells in culture. Cancer Res. 1980 Jul;40(7):2361–2366. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Rose E. A., Glaser T., Jones C., Smith C. L., Lewis W. H., Call K. M., Minden M., Champagne E., Bonetta L., Yeger H. Complete physical map of the WAGR region of 11p13 localizes a candidate Wilms' tumor gene. Cell. 1990 Feb 9;60(3):495–508. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90600-j. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Rosenberg M. R., Michalopoulos G. Kidney proximal tubular cells isolated by collagenase perfusion grow in defined media in the absence of growth factors. J Cell Physiol. 1987 Apr;131(1):107–113. doi: 10.1002/jcp.1041310116. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Rozengurt E. Early signals in the mitogenic response. Science. 1986 Oct 10;234(4773):161–166. doi: 10.1126/science.3018928. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Scott J., Cowell J., Robertson M. E., Priestley L. M., Wadey R., Hopkins B., Pritchard J., Bell G. I., Rall L. B., Graham C. F. Insulin-like growth factor-II gene expression in Wilms' tumour and embryonic tissues. Nature. 1985 Sep 19;317(6034):260–262. doi: 10.1038/317260a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Tricoli J. V., Rall L. B., Scott J., Bell G. I., Shows T. B. Localization of insulin-like growth factor genes to human chromosomes 11 and 12. 1984 Aug 30-Sep 5Nature. 310(5980):784–786. doi: 10.1038/310784a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Van Heyningen V., Hastie N. D. Wilms' tumour: reconciling genetics and biology. Trends Genet. 1992 Jan;8(1):16–21. doi: 10.1016/0168-9525(92)90019-z. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Yeger H., Baumal R., Bailey D., Pawlin G., Phillips M. J. Histochemical and immunohistochemical characterization of surgically resected and heterotransplanted Wilms' tumor. Cancer Res. 1985 May;45(5):2350–2357. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Yeger H., Baumal R., Harason P., Phillips M. J. Lectin histochemistry of Wilms' tumor. Comparison with normal adult and fetal kidney. Am J Clin Pathol. 1987 Sep;88(3):278–285. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/88.3.278. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Yeger H., Baumal R., Pawlin G., Phillips M. J. Relationship of histology of Wilms' tumor to growth characteristics of nude mouse heterotransplants. Cancer Res. 1985 May;45(5):2340–2349. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The American Journal of Pathology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Investigative Pathology

RESOURCES