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In vitro models are essential to understanding the molecular characteristics of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the testing of therapies for CRC. Many efforts to establish and characterize primary CRC cell lines have been published, most describing a small number of novel cell lines. However, there remains a lack of a large panel of uniformly established and characterized cell lines. To this end we established 20 novel CRC cell lines, of which six were derived from liver metastases. Genetic, genomic and transcriptomic profiling was performed in order to characterize these new cell lines. All data are made publically available upon publication.By combining mutation profiles with CNA and gene expression profiles, we generated an overall profile of the alterations in the major CRC-related signaling pathways. The combination of mutation profiles with genome, transcriptome and methylome data means that these low passage cell lines are among the best characterized of all CRC cell lines. This will allow researchers to select model cell lines appropriate to specific experiments, facilitating the optimal use of these cell lines as in vitro models for CRC. All cell lines are available for further research.

Background: p53 (encoded by TP53) is involved in DNA damage repair, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, aging and cellular senescence. TP53 is mutated in around 50% of human cancers. Nevertheless, the consequences of p53 inactivation in colon cancer outcome remain unclear. Recently, a new role of p53 together with CSNK1A1 in colon cancer invasiveness has been described in mice., Methods: By combining data on different levels of p53 inactivation, we aimed to predict p53 functionality and to determine its effects on colon cancer outcome. Moreover, survival effects of CSNK1A1 together with p53 were also studied.Eighty-three formalin fixed paraffin embedded colon tumors were enriched for tumor cells using flow sorting, the extracted DNA was used in a custom SNP array to determine chr17p13-11 allelic state; p53 immunostaining, TP53 exons 5, 6, 7 and 8 mutations were determined in combination with mRNA expression analysis on frozen tissue., Results: Patients with a predicted functional p53 had a better prognosis than patients with non functional p53 (Log Rank p=0.009). Expression of CSNK1A1 modified p53 survival effects. Patients with low CSNK1A1 expression and non-functional p53 had a very poor survival both in the univariate (Log Rank p<0.001) and in the multivariate survival analysis (HR=4.74 95% CI 1.45 - 15.3 p=0.009)., Conclusion: The combination of mutational, genomic, protein and downstream transcriptional activity data predicted p53 functionality which is shown to have a prognostic effect on colon cancer patients. This effect was specifically modified by CSKN1A1 expression.

Cellular aggregates called embryoid bodies (EB) have been obtained from the experimental teratocarcinoma (TC) 0TT6050. Two morphological types of EB can be differentiated, which are injected subcutaneously into isogenic 129/Sv mice. The tumors are collected 20 and 30 days after EB injection and processed histologically, and immunohistochemically with anti-alpha-fetoprotein (alpha-FP) antibodies. Our results indicate that the histological pattern of the tumors is related to the degree of morphological organization of the EB used.