SW620-Luc Cells

SW620-Luc is a bioluminescent derivative of the human SW620 metastatic colon adenocarcinoma cell line, engineered to stably express a firefly luciferase reporter gene. The parental SW620 cell line was derived from a lymph node metastasis of the same patient from whom SW480 was established, allowing paired primary-metastatic comparative studies of colorectal cancer biology. SW620 cells exhibit epithelial-like morphology and share the same key oncogenic mutations as SW480, including KRAS G12V, TP53 R273H and P309S, and APC truncation, but display more mesenchymal features and greater invasive potential, consistent with their metastatic origin. SW620 is widely used to study colorectal cancer metastasis, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and therapeutic resistance mechanisms.

The stable luciferase integration in SW620-Luc enables sensitive, quantitative bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of tumor burden in xenograft and experimental metastasis models in immunocompromised hosts. The emitted signal correlates with viable tumor cell number, supporting longitudinal monitoring of tumor engraftment, growth kinetics, liver colonization, and lymph node dissemination. SW620-Luc is particularly valuable for studying the metastatic progression of colorectal cancer, evaluating anti-metastatic agents, and performing comparative in vivo studies with the matched primary SW480 line.

SW620-Luc retains the molecular profile and metastatic phenotype of the parental SW620 line, including KRAS and TP53 mutations. The luciferase modification substantially enhances experimental throughput and sensitivity for in vivo pharmacodynamic assessment of treatment efficacy. Researchers should verify luciferase activity, mutational profile, and growth kinetics under their specific experimental conditions prior to large-scale preclinical use.