Establishment and characterization of human gingival squamous cell carcinoma cell line NOCS-1

The NOCS-1 cell line was established from the left gingiva tumor in an 86-year-old Japanese man. Histopathological diagnosis of the original tumor was well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. NOCS-1 cells were adhesive epithelial cells with neoplastic or pleomorphic features and grew without contact inhibition. It has been subcultured 70 times during the past 26 months. From passage 3, melanin-containing cells began to be observed in the NOCS-1 cell line. The plating efficiencies were 25% and 23%, doubling times were 29 and 26 h, and saturation densities were 6.9 × 104/cm2 and 8.7 × 104/cm2, at passage 12 and 30, respectively. When NOCS-1 cells were xenotransplanted subcutaneously into SCID mice, they produced tumors that histopathologically resembled the original tumor. In addition, NOCS-1-XG cells derived from the xenotransplanted tumor were similar to NOCS-1 cells. We believe that this cell line may be a valuable tool to develop immunotherapy and chemotherapy regimens.