Letters To The Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 28, 2016; 22(40): 9035-9038
Published online Oct 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i40.9035
Establishment of various biliary tract carcinoma cell lines and xenograft models for appropriate preclinical studies
Hidenori Ojima, Seri Yamagishi, Kazuaki Shimada, Tatsuhiro Shibata
Hidenori Ojima, Division of Molecular Pathology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Hidenori Ojima, Department of Pathology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Seri Yamagishi, Tatsuhiro Shibata, Division of Cancer Genomics, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Kazuaki Shimada, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Division, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Author contributions: Ojima H wrote and revised this letter; Ojima H, Yamagishi S and Shibata T conducted the study and performed the data analyses; Shimada K obtained surgical biliary tract carcinoma specimens and performed the clinical data analyses; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Ojima H reports grants from Merck Serono Co., Ltd., grants from Eli Lilly Japan Co., Ltd., outside the submitted work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hidenori Ojima, MD, PhD, Division of Molecular Pathology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan. hojima@a3.keio.jp
Telephone: +81-3-35475137 Fax: +81-3-35453567
Received: July 13, 2016
Peer-review started: July 16, 2016
First decision: August 19, 2016
Revised: September 8, 2016
Accepted: September 28, 2016
Article in press: September 28, 2016
Published online: October 28, 2016
Processing time: 105 Days and 1.7 Hours
Abstract

We recently reported several driver genes of biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) that are known to play important roles in oncogenesis and disease progression. Although the need for developing novel therapeutic strategies is increasing, there are very few BTC cell lines and xenograft models currently available for conducting preclinical studies. Using a total of 88 surgical BTC specimens and 536 immunodeficient mice, 28 xenograft models and 13 new BTC cell lines, including subtypes, were established. Some of our cell lines were found to be resistant to gemcitabine, which is currently the first choice of treatment, thereby allowing highly practical preclinical studies to be conducted. Using the aforementioned cell lines and xenograft models and a clinical pathological database of patients undergoing BTC resection, we can establish a preclinical study system and appropriate parameters for drug efficacy studies to explore new biomarkers for practical applications in the future studies.

Keywords: Biliary tract carcinoma; Cell line; Xenograft model; Preclinical study

Core tip: Although the need for developing novel therapeutic strategies for biliary tract carcinoma (BTC) is increasing, there are only few xenograft models and cell lines available for in vivo and in vitro studies, respectively. To conduct appropriate preclinical studies, we established 28 xenograft models and 13 new BTC cell lines using several surgical BTC specimens and immunodeficient mice. Using the aforementioned cell lines and xenograft models and a clinical pathological database of patients undergoing BTC resection, we can establish appropriate parameters for drug efficacy studies to explore new biomarkers for practical applications in the future studies.