U-DCS: characterization of the first permanent human dendritic sarcoma cell line

A dendritic cell sarcoma cell line, U-DCS, was established from a dendritic cell sarcoma in a 53-year-old Caucasian male patient. Since its establishment, U-DCS has maintained stable phenotypic characteristics in vitro and has a doubling time of approximately 2 days under standard culture conditions. U-DCS is growing with typical dendritic cell morphology in tissue and expresses the dendritic cell sarcoma immunophenotypic markers S100 protein, MHCI, MHCII, and vimentin. Expression analysis revealed transcripts for the toll-like receptors TLR3, -4, -9 and DDX58 (RIG-I), but not for TLR2. U-DCS shows functional features of dendritic cells with the ability of phagocytosis and antigen-specific T cell stimulation. Karyotype-, CGH-, and mFISH analysis point to a chromosomal instability and a hypotetraploid karyotype with approximately 130 chromosomes. U-DCS is the first immortalized human dendritic cell sarcoma cell line and has some morphological and functional features of dendritic cells without dependency on growth factors.