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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cellular differentiation of the neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid cell line NG108-15 was measured and correlated with quantitative changes in the cells' ganglioside composition. The degree of differentiation was measured using an enzymatic marker, choline acetyltransferase (CAT), which is responsible for neurotransmitter synthesis in this cell line. Differentiation of these cells is commonly induced by agents such as dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate (Bt2cAMP). However, in our studies, we observed that these cells "self-differentiated," in the absence of chemical inducers, when the cells became dense in culture. The differentiation marker, CAT specific activity, rose from 150 to more than 400 pmol/min/mg of protein as cell density increased, attaining a level higher than that achieved by treatment with Bt2cAMP. Differentiation of sparse cultures could be induced by conditioned medium removed from dense cultures. This effect was not due to depletion of a serum component from the medium by the cells, since it was not mimicked by serum depletion or inhibited by addition of fresh serum to the conditioned medium. These data suggest that cell density-dependent differentiation was caused by release of a factor from the cells which induced differentiation in a concentration-dependent manner. Gangliosides, therefore, were purified from sparse control cultures, dense cultures, and cultures treated with the differentiating agents Bt2cAMP, prostaglandin E1 (plus theophylline), or butyric acid. Quantitative thin layer chromatography revealed that all of the cultures contained the four gangliosides GM3, GM2, GM1, and GD1a. The concentration of one of the gangliosides, GM2, increased markedly (up to 12-fold) during differentiation. The GM2 concentration correlated closely with the level of CAT activity in the different cultures (r = 0.99). These data demonstrate that the ganglioside concentration in these cells is regulated during differentiation, a finding consistent with a possible role for gangliosides in the differentiated phenotype.
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PMID:Ganglioside composition is regulated during differentiation in the neuroblastoma X glioma hybrid cell line NG108-15. 630 Mar 57

Dibutyryl cyclic AMP and butyrate inhibited growth of S-20 (cholinergic) and NIE-115 (adrenergic) neuroblastoma clones. Both these drugs resulted in a parallel increase of choline acetyltransferase and ATP-citrate lyase activities in S-20 neuroblastoma cells. On the other hand, the increase in tyrosine hydroxylase activity in NIE-115 caused by these drugs was not accompanied by a significant change in ATP-citrate lyase activity. Both dibutyryl cyclic AMP and butyrate caused a decrease in fatty acid synthetase activity in both cell lines. The activities of pyruvate dehydrogenase, citrate synthase, choline acetyltransferase, and lactate dehydrogenase in both S-20 and NIE-115 cells were not significantly influenced by the drugs. ATP-citrate lyases from S-20 and NIE-115 had similar kinetic and immunological properties, and their subunits had the same molecular weight as the rat liver enzyme. These data indicate that the differential regulation of ATP-citrate lyase activity in cholinergic and adrenergic cells does not result from the existence of different molecular forms of the enzyme in these cell lines. They also provide further evidence to support the hypothesis that ATP-citrate lyase activity increases during maturation of normal cholinergic neurons and decreases in noncholinergic cells of the brain.
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PMID:The enzymes of acetyl-CoA metabolism in differentiating cholinergic (s-20) and noncholinergic (NIE-115) neuroblastoma cells. 630 53

The objective of this investigation was to characterize non-cloned neuroblastoma cells immunohistochemically. In this study, the cholinergic cells in three mouse tumors were identified by using a choline acetyltransferase (CAT) antibody. Different cholinergic cell distribution patterns were found in the three tumors by using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS). An antibody to CAT was prepared by immunization of guinea pigs with CAT-antigen from bovine brain. The specificity of the antibody obtained was examined with mouse cervical spinal cord. Identification of the cholinergic cells was performed in three types of non-cloned tumor culture cells, neuroblastoma C-1300 in A/J mice, glioblastoma 203GL in C57BL6 mice and lymphosarcoma 6C3HED in CBA mice. The CAT content and distribution were determined by radiochemical assay, immunohistochemical staining, and individual cell counting with a FACS. The results of radiochemical assay and immunohistochemical staining were in agreement with the CAT distribution pattern determined by cell counting with FACS IV.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical identification of cholinergic cells in non-cloned tumor cells. 635 20

We show here that cells dissociated from fetal mouse hypothalamus and cerebral hemispheres can be grown in primary culture in a serum-free medium (SFM). We describe several properties of these cultures and compare them to those in serum-supplemented medium (SSM). The SFM used is a modification of that described for neuroblastoma cells: neuronal survival is improved when 17 beta-estradiol is added. Initial events in culture development were similar to those observed in SSM. However, after 1 week, several differences could be noted: in SFM, the proportion of neuron-like cells was increased while the basal glial layer was noticeably reduced, and the neurite network remained less developed than in SSM. These findings demonstrate that the use of SFM permits manipulation of the types and proportions of cells in these primary cultures. This point has been already made. Several neuronal activities were studied. In cultures from both hypothalamus and cerebral hemispheres, thyroliberin (TRH)-immunoreactive cells were visualized by immunohistochemistry, and TRH was radioimmunoassayed in cell extracts and in the medium. In hypothalamic cultures, tyrosine hydroxylase was shown to remain stable for 1 week, and then declined. Glutamic acid decarboxylase disappeared very quickly in vitro, whereas choline acetyltransferase activity increased more rapidly in SFM than in SSM. It is concluded that the use of an SFM for growing normal fetal hypothalamic cells offers a promising model for studying neuroendocrine regulatory mechanisms in culture.
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PMID:Differentiation of fetal mouse hypothalamic cells in serum-free medium. 678 65

Cholinergic murine neuroblastoma cells, maintained in vitro, were exposed to a low concentration (0.4 micrograms/ml) of adriamycin. Morphologically the treated cells appeared to differentiate. The cell bodies increased in size from an average fixed cell body diameter of 7-13 to 25-40 micrometers, the cells developed long processes, became argyrophilic and the percentage of cells undergoing mitosis decreased relative to controls. Acetylcholine esterase activity increased in the drug-treated cells suggesting induction of differentiation. However, choline acetyltransferase activity and ganglioside composition remained unchanged. In addition, inoculation of mice with 2 x 10(5) viable drug-treated or control cells resulted in all of the mice developing neuroblastoma. No differences were observed in either the rate of tumor development or survival times. These results suggest that neuroblastoma cells may survive adriamycin treatment by becoming 'differentiated', ceasing cell division until conditions favor their undergoing another cell cycle.
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PMID:Biochemical and morphological study of adriamycin-induced changes in murine neuroblastoma cells. 707 39

Murine neuroblastoma cells have been widely used as a model system for neuronal cells as they can be induced to differentiate in culture by various stimuli, such as dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP), prostaglandin, and serum starvation. The cells respond with assembly of microtubules, leading to neurite outgrowth, with increased activity of neuronal-specific enzymes, tyrosine hydroxylase, choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholine-esterase, and synthesis of neurotransmitters. The differentiated cells lose tumorigenicity. Cell-to-substratum adhesion is evidently crucial for neurone extension in vitro. Neurite outgrowth is induced by treatments that increase cell-to-substratum adhesion in some neuronal cell cultures. We have now identified the major high molecular weight proteins synthesized and secreted by murine C1300 neuroblastoma cells as fibronectin, laminin and type IV procollagen, of which the latter two were also found to be deposited in pericellular matrix form.
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PMID:Basal lamina glycoproteins are produced by neuroblastoma cells. 743 74

Effects of various differentiating agents and DNA demethylating agents on the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), marker enzymes for cholinergic and adrenergic differentiation, respectively, were examined in N-18 neuroblastoma cells. Retinoic acid (RA) and a medium conditioned over C6-glioma cells (GCM), which have been shown to enhance the ChAT activity of PC12 cells, NG108-15 cells and fetal rat brain cells, did not induce ChAT activity of N-18 cells. Treatment of the cells with the DNA demethylating agents alone also did not affect ChAT activity. But after pretreatment of the cells with the DNA demethylating agents, ChAT activity of N-18 cells was greatly increased by either RA or GCM. TH activity of N-18 cells was enhanced by forskolin, an activator of adenylate cyclase. The pretreatment of the cells with the DNA demethylating agents greatly enhanced the induction of TH activity by forskolin. Levels of ChAT and TH messenger RNA were altered in accordance with changes in ChAT and TH activities. Possible mechanisms of the actions of the demethylating agents on cholinergic and adrenergic differentiation are discussed.
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PMID:Induction of cholinergic and adrenergic differentiation in N-18 cells by differentiation agents and DNA demethylating agents. 750 29

Secretion of acetylcholine (ACh) in neuroblastoma cells overexpressing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) was examined. With transient transfection of ChAT cDNA, neuroblastoma cells, which have no endogenous ChAT and either adhere to myotubes or not, failed to form functional synapses, and thus no evidence for release of ACh was detected. Stable neuroblastoma cell lines overexpressing ChAT accumulated ACh inside the cell, and slowly released ACh to the outside of the cell in a calcium-independent fashion. However, after co-culturing them with rat muscle cells, these transformed cells adhered to myotubes and ACh was secreted in a discrete fashion into the synaptic cleft efficiently in some neuroblastoma cell lines but rather inefficiently in another cell line. The results show that the latent secretion machinery of ChAT overexpressing neuroblastoma cells either is competent or possess defect(s) in ACh release.
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PMID:Overexpression of choline acetyltransferase reconstitutes discrete acetylcholine release in some but not all synapse formation-defective neuroblastoma cells. 758 3

Immature neurons, including fetal and tumoral cells, are used for investigating neuronal differentiation in vitro. The human neuroblastoma cell line NB69 could be induced to differentiate to dopamine or acetylcholine neurons by different compounds, including neurotrophins and activators of the protein kinases. In these NB69 cells dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP) at 2 mM reduced the division rate and increased the levels of catecholamines, tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity, and monoamine oxidase activity. The dbcAMP also increased cell size, dendritic arborization, density of the sites for high-affinity dopamine uptake, and activity of choline acetyltransferase. In fetal rat midbrain neurons treatment with dbcAMP increased the levels of dopamine and the number of TH-immunoreactive neurons in the culture. When embryonic day 14 fetal midbrain neurons, previously exposed to 1 microM retinoic acid (a compound that severely reduces the number of fetal midbrain dopamine neurons), were treated with dbcAMP, the levels of dopamine and the number of TH-immunoreactive cells returned to normal levels. This suggests that dbcAMP induces the differentiation to dopamine neurons of quiescent progenitor or facilitates expression of the dopamine phenotype in immature neurons. Therefore, dbcAMP not only differentiates uncommitted immature dopamine neurons, but also reverses the antidopaminergic effects of retinoic acid. These properties of dbcAMP could be of therapeutic value in Parkinson's disease.
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PMID:Effects of dibutyryl cyclic AMP and retinoic acid on the differentiation of dopamine neurons: prevention of cell death by dibutyryl cyclic AMP. 759 58

We have examined the 5'-flanking region (944 bp) of the human choline acetyltransferase (hChAT) gene for sequences that modulate its transcriptional activity and identified a sequence 5'-TGACCCA-3' which confers c-Jun/c-Fos (AP-1) inducibility of homologous and heterologous promoters. Using transient transfections in neuroblastoma NE-1-115 and COS-1 cells, we show that ligand-activated estrogen receptor (HEGo) represses the transcriptional activation by c-Fos/c-Jun. Testing HEGo mutants in transfection assays reveals that the ligand-binding domain is crucial for this repression, whereas the N-terminal (A/B) region and the DNA-binding domain are not essential. Gel retardation assays show that the hChAT AP-1 recognition sequence binds in vitro baculovirus-produced c-Jun/c-Fos proteins. This binding is inhibited by addition of baculovirus-produced HEGo. In contrast to HEGo, ligand-activated glucocorticoid, androgen, and retinoic acid receptors (RARs) enhance the transcription activation induced by c-Jun/c-Fos. All three types of RARs--RAR alpha, beta, gamma--and RXR alpha are able to stimulate AP-1 activity on the proximal hChAT promoter. Several mechanism possibilities involving protein-protein interaction are discussed to explain the phenomena.
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PMID:Positive and negative effects of nuclear receptors on transcription activation by AP-1 of the human choline acetyltransferase proximal promoter. 774 8


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