Tissue-Culture Studies of Human Oral Carcinoma 1. Proliferative Capacities of Non-malignant and Malignant Oral Explants

¹ Schools of Dentistry and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California

Sixty-six human oral specimens from normal tissue, and benign and malignant lesions of 66 donors were cultivated utilizing glass cover slips, plasma clots, Leighton tubes, and a variety of media. Forty-nine (74 per cent) grew for an average duration of 6.5 months. Twenty are still persisting, and three of these 20 may be classified as established cell lines.

Morphologic similarities of the cultivated cells precluded identity on this basis with the original tissue source. Erratic appearances of epithelial-like and fibroblast-like cells could not be predicted or controlled.

Explants from benign and malignant oral lesions appeared to have a greater proliferative capacity than those from clinically-normal gingiva.