APUD CELLS IN TERATOMAS

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  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 104  (2) , 174-180
Abstract
The origin of the endocrine cells in the respiratory tract and the gastrointestinal tract is still a matter of debate. In the original concept of the amine precursor uptake and decarboxylation (APUD) system, all APUD cells were considered to be derived from the neural crest. More recently it was proposed that the APUD cell types of the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts originate from neuroendocrine-programmed ectoblast. Other observations favor a direct endodermal origin of these cell types. Since in teratomas different tissue types which in normal embryogenesis are derived from the neuroectoderm might be expected to occur together, a series of cystic ovarian teratomas and testicular teratocarcinomas were examined for the presence of brain tissue and different types of APUD cells. In the ovarian teratomas, intestinal and respiratory APUD cell types were found almost exclusively without coexistence of brain tissue, whereas melanocytes, which are of neuroectodermal origin, occurred mostly together with brain tissue. In the testicular teratocarcinomas, intestinal types of APUD cells occurred without brain tissue. Peptide hormone production was found in appropriate tissues. In teratomas appropriate intestinal and respiratory APUD cells evidently differentiate in and presumably descend directly from intestinal and respiratory epithelium.