Weil R J, Huang S, Pack S, Vortmeyer A O, Tsokos M, Lubensky I A, Oldfield E H, Zhuang Z
Surgical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Cancer Res. 1998 Oct 15;58(20):4715-20.
Analysis of human tumor cells in vitro enhances the study of numerous neoplastic conditions. However, it has been difficult to establish long-term cultures of adenoma cells, especially those of neuroendocrine origin, because the endocrine cells survive only briefly in culture, and fibroblasts overgrow the culture dish in 1 or 2 weeks. We describe cells isolated from pituitary adenomas in two patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 in which cells with a mesenchymal phenotype evolved from pituitary tumor cells. It appears that these poorly differentiated cells arose from multipotent adenoma cells. This represents a path of cell differentiation not observed previously in humans and may help explain the diverse nature of the benign tumors in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1.
