Morphological And Cytochemical Characterization Of Rat Adrenocortical Cells in vitro

Abstract

Primary monolayer cultures of adrenocortical cells were established from adult female rats of the Wistar strain by single treatment with collagenase type II. This lot of collagenase had been evaluated for collagenase, clostripain, caseinase, and tryptic enzyme activities. The adrenocortical cells were maintained in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium, Fetal Calf Serum, and gentamycin. Morphological observation of cultures revealed the presence of epithelial cortical cells and absence of medullary cells (epithelial or fibroblastic). The cells contained cytoplasmic lipid granules. In an attempt to localize sites of 3 Beta - hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity, cytochemical experiments were performed.