Basal-cell carcinoma
In the United States approximately 3 out of 10 caucasians develop a basal-cell carcinoma during their lifetime. This tumor accounts for approximately 70% of non-melanoma skin cancers. In 80 percent of all cases, basal-cell carcinoma affects the skin of head and neck. Furthermore, there appears to be an increase in the incidence of basal-cell cancer of the trunk in recent years.
P19 cell
Cancer cells in humans may result in the patient's death if the aggressive cancer cell grows and metastasizes. However, researchers utilize these cells to study the development of cancer cells in order to find more specific treatments. For developmental biologists, embryonal carcinoma, which is derived from teratocarcinoma, is a good object for developmental study. In 1982, McBurney and Rogers transplanted a 7.5 day mouse embryo into the testis to induce tumor growth. Cell cultures containing undifferentiatied stem cells were isolated from the primary tumor which have a euploid karyotype. These stem cells were named embryonal carcinoma P19 cells. These derived P19 cells grew rapidly without feeder cells and were easy to maintain. Moreover, the multipotency of P19 cells was then confirmed by injecting the cells into blastocysts of another mouse strain. The researchers found that there were tissues from all three germ layers growing in the recipient mouse. Based on their continuous studies, they further derived subtype cell lines from original P19 cells: P19S18, P19D3, P19RAC65 and P19C16. The difference between these subtype cell lines is the ability to differentiate into neuronal cells or muscle cells in response to treatment with retinoic acid or DMSO, respectively.
More recently, various studies generate cell lines that were initially derived from differentiated P19 cells. Due to the pluripotency of P19 cells, those new derived cell lines can be ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm-like cells.