Establishment of a hamster lymphoma cell line

The establishment of a hamster lymphoma cell line was attempted. Simple mincing and trypsinization of lymphoma tissue resulted in a high degree of cell degeneration. The ascitic tumor cells produced by intraperitoneal transplantation of lymphoma tissue gave a better result. These ascitic cells grew and were cultured successively in medium consisting of RPMI 1640 and 20% fetal calf serum. Cells were round and grew in suspension. Accelerated cell growth was observed one month after starting the culture. In the stained preparations, cells were lymphoblastic. Cells were transplantable into new-born hamsters and produced tumors, but not in young adult hamsters.