Profiles of Prostaglandin Biosynthesis in Sixteen Established Cell Lines Derived from Human Lung, Colon, Prostate, and Ovarian Tumors¹

The profiles of prostanoid biosynthesis from endogenous arachidonic acid in 16 established cell lines derived from 4 histological classes of human carcinomas were determined by capillary gas chromatographymass spectrometry. Detectable quantities of prostanoids were isolated from the culture medium of cell lines representative of the different histological classes of human tumors: colorectal adenocarcinomas (one of three cell lines); ovarian adenocarcinomas (one of three cell lines); prostate adenocarcinomas (zero of two cell lines); non-small cell carcinomas of the lung (four of five cell lines); and small cell carcinomas of the lung (zero of three cell lines). Prostaglandins E₂ and F_2α were the only prostanoids synthesized in detectable quantities. Prostaglandin E₂ biosynthesis (mean ± SD), pmol/10⁶ cells, n = 4) in cell lines exhibiting positive prostaglandin H synthase activity was: LoVo (colorectal adenocarcinoma, 0.4 ± 0.1); A2780 (ovarian adenocarcinoma, 1.3 ± 0.3); NCI-H322 (bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma, 8.4 ± 3.1); NCI-H358 (bronchioloalveolar cell carcinoma, 7.8 ± 2.4); EKVX (adenocarcinoma of the lung, 21.3 ± 5.5); and A427 (large cell undifferentiated carcinoma of the lung, 12.6 ± 2.8). Prostaglandin F_2α production (pmol/10⁶ cells ± SD) was: LoVo (0.3 ± 0.1); NCI-H322 (0.6 ± 0.2); NCI-H358 (0.4 ± 0.1); EKVX (1.8 ± 0.4); and A427 (11.1 ± 3.1). These findings suggest that within certain limitations cultured tumor cells provide simplified experimental systems for determination of prostaglandin biosynthetic characteristics of human tumors and that prostanoid biosynthesis may be particularly characteristic of certain non-small cell carcinomas of the lung.