Neuronal differentiation of Ewing's sarcoma induced by cholera toxin B and bromodeoxyuridine--establishment of Ewing's sarcoma cell line and histochemical study.

An Ewing's sarcoma (ES) cell line was established from a metastatic bone marrow specimen in a patient with advanced disease, and some histochemical characteristics were investigated by neuronal differentiation induced with cholera toxin B (CTB) and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU). Neuronal differentiation was investigated by the expression of neurofilament and Leu-7, and glial differentiation was observed by expression of S-100 protein. Neurofilament (NF) and Leu-7 were positive in ES cells and these were expressed more intensively by induction with CTB than with BrdU. There was no expression of S-100 protein in untreated or differentiated ES cells. ES cells became differentiated to neuronal cells with CTB and BrdU, but it was not observed, that ES cells had the potential to differentiate to glial cells. It appears that ES is of more primitive neural origin than neuroblastoma, primitive neuroectodermal tumors and other related neural tumors.