Production of Hormones by Human Anterior Pituitary Cells in Serial Culture

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Abstract
Human pituitary cells from adult and fetal glands were serially propagated in stationary and suspension cultures for periods of many months. Such cells were frozen, stored, and recultivated. Bio-assays of stationary cultures indicated gonadotropin, corticotropin and somatotropin were present in amounts greater than in the control medium. Gonadotropin (follicle-stimulating and interstitial cell-stimulating) was produced in significant amounts in suspension cultures of a line of chromophobe-like cells. Stained by the iron-periodic acid-Schiff method their cytoplasm showed masses having a characteristic peacock-blue color when examined with "phase" microscopy, and pink, with bright-field. They were heteroploid with a chromosome count in a narrow range with modality at 79.