engleski

Development of anterior pituitary cell culture system for toxicological application

Anterior pituitary cells in culture for studing the hormone secretion provides a number of advantages in in vitro experiments. Primary culture of pituitary cells allow complete isolation of the pituitary from neural and humoral influence, and addition of drugs or xenobiotics including environmental pollutants under a controlled environment. For preparing primary cell culture from male rat anterior pituitary the mechanical disruption method and short-term enzymatic dispersion with collagenase were used. The optimal density of the cell suspension was between 1-5x105 cells/ml. The cells were plated in medium M-199 (pH 7.6) containing 10% fetal calf serum. Plated pituitary cells attached quickly (within 24 hrs) and quantitatively (85%) to plastic surfaces of plates or wells. Cell colonies were formed during a 3-day culture period as the cells flattened and re-established contacts with neighboring cells. Cultured pituitary cells permit examination of long-term effects of drugs or xenobiotics on pituitary hormone secretion in controlled conditions. Though pituitary cells after isolation from tissue and culturing showed comparable activity with tissue culture experiments made previously. It is advaisable before utilizing cultured cells in toxicological studies to investigate this secretory system by comparison with a well established in vitro model. J.Kniewald et al, J.appl.toxicol. 14 (1994) and 16 (1996).

anterior pituitary; primary cell culture; hormone secretion

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