Human Lung Carcinoma cell line. The NCI-H146 cell line was derived by A.F. Gazdar and associates in 1979 from the pleural fluid of a patient with small cell cancer of the lung. The bone marrow specimen was taken prior to therapy. The line expresses elevated levels of four biochemical markers （neuron specific enolase, brain isoenzyme of creatine kinase, L-DOPA decarboxylase and bombesin-like immunoreactivity. The cells stain positively for vimentin and keratin, but are negative for neurofilament triplet protein. The cells produce relatively high amounts of c-myc mRNA, but c-myc DNA sequences are not amplified. The cells do not express vasopressin, oxytocin or gastrin releasing peptide.
