Incorporation and Release of H3-Catecholamines by Cultured Fetal Human Sympathetic Nerve Cells and Neuroblastoma Cells.

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Abstract
The uptake of H3-dopamine and H3-norepinephrine by normal, human, fetal, sympathetic nerve cells and malignant neuroblastomas was investigated. The normal and malignant nerve cells were explanted in tissue culture on the surface of collagen coated cover slips. After a short period of growth in vitro, networks of long axons developed from the cell bodies. The cells were then pulse labelled with the radioactive amines and chased for varying periods of time in media free of these amines. Cells were fixed in 3% gluteraldehyde in Hanks'' and autoradiographs were prepared. All of the fetal sympathetic nerve cells took up the catecholamines but neuroblastoma cells from only 5 of 8 children took up and bound these amines. It appears that the malignant sympathetic nerve cells may have lost the cellular mechanism for binding the amines or that these cells may degrade and release them as rapidly as they are taken up.