The cell line OE19, also known as JROECL19, was established in 1993 from an adenocarcinoma of gastric cardia/oesophageal gastric junction of a 72 year old male patient. The tumour was identified as pathological stage III (UICC) and showed moderate differentiation. The cell line OE19 expresses HLA-A, -B and -C antigens (MHC class I) constitutively. Treatment with IFN-gamma induced the expression of ICAM-1 (CD54). Expression of HLA-DR (MHC class II) on IFN-gamma addition was only measured in a sub-population of OE19. The cells express epithelial cytokeratins and are tumourigenic in nude mice.The Y chromosome could not be detected in this cell line by short tandem repeat (STR)-PCR analysis when tested at ECACC. It is a known phenomenon that due to the increased genetic instability of cancer cell lines the Y chromosome can be rearranged or lost resulting in lack of detection. The cell line is identical to the source provided by the depositor based on the STR-PCR analysis.