NCI-H460 Cells

NCI-H460, also known as H460, was derived from a male patient with large cell lung carcinoma. NCI-H460 cells are adherent cells growing twice as fast than the A549 cells with a doubling time of 33 hours in RPMI 1640 supplemented with 10% FBS. They can form tumors in both in vitro and in vivo models, including nude mice. NCI-H460 cells have been shown to express p53 mRNA at high levels comparable to normal lung tissue, while exhibiting no gross structural DNA abnormalities. They stain positively for keratin and vimentin but are negative for neurofilament triplet protein. Isoenzyme analysis has shown that HPRT is localized on the surface of these non-small-cell lung cancer cell lines. AK-1, ES-D, and Me-2 isoenzymes are expressed at level 1, while G6PD and PGM1 and PGM3 isoenzymes are expressed at level B and 1-2, respectively. The cells have a hypotriploid karyotype with a modal chromosome number of 57, ranging from 53 to 65. Seven marker chromosomes are common to all cells, including der(9)t(1;9)(q21;p24), der(9)t(7;9)(p11;p22), t(10q14q), der(16)t(7;16)(q11.23;q22). Their high expression levels of p53 mRNA make them a suitable model for studying the molecular mechanisms of non-small-cell lung cancer.