Establishment of a human renal pelvic cancer cell line producing tissue thromboplastin and plasminogen activator.

A new epithelial cell line derived from undifferentiated carcinoma of human renal pelvis, designated KP 1, was established in vitro. The cell line has been passaged 190 times in vitro for 5 years and 9 months. The predominant cell in KP 1 was a tear-drop-shaped cell. Doubling time of the cell line was 35 h. The malignant epithelial character of this line was verified by carcinogenicity in the subcuticular layer of nude mice and by karyotypic analysis which revealed the cells to be completely aneuploid with a model chromosome number in the hypertriploid range. KP 1 cells were shown to produce both tissue thromboplastin and plasminogen activator which was immunologically identical to urokinase, the plasminogen activator in urine.