Gut peptide production by tumour cell lines in culture.

Cell lines which produce eutopic and ectopic gut peptides have been established from a variety of human and animal tumours arising within and outside the gastroentero-pancreatic axis. Most of these lines also exhibit other morphological, physiological and biochemical characteristics of normal and neoplastic neuroendocrine cells. Studies of lines derived from a number of different kinds of tumours indicate that synthesis, storage and release of gut peptides by tumours is not truly autonomous, and that even in cells from highly malignant and poorly differentiated tumours these functions may be regulated to varying degrees by environmental influences that also affect normal cell types. Cell lines have been valuable models for cellular and molecular studies of neuroendocrine gene expression in normal and neoplastic states.