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Content of Gonadotropins in Cultured Human Malignant Cells and Effects of Sodium Butyrate Treatment on Gonadotropin Secretion by HeLa Cells¹

Biological Markers Program, National Cancer Institute-Frederick Cancer Research Center, Frederick, Maryland 21701

Twenty-one of 82 human cell lines examined for production of human chorionic gonadotropin and its subunits (HCG- and HCG-ß) produced either one or both subunits at some phase in their growth. Of these, 14 produced an excess amount of free subunit, and seven produced HCG-ß or complete HCG without evidence for free subunit synthesis. Five of the HCG-producing cell lines also contained or secreted the ß subunit of human luteinizing hormone. CBT cells derived from a glioblastoma multiforme and JAR choriocarcinoma cells secreted significant amounts of the ß subunit of human luteinizing hormone, while three other cell lines (breast carcinoma MCF-7, HeLa S₃, and melanoma A375) produced small amounts of the ß subunit of human luteinizing hormone but did not appear to secrete it. Two cell lines (the melanoma line A375 and the SV40-transformed line SV80) appeared to contain small amounts of human follicle-stimulating hormone. Sodium butyrate caused a 40-fold induction in the secretion of both HCG- and HCG-ß by HeLa S₃ cells, but the total amount of HCG- secretion induced was 800-fold greater than that of HCG-ß. Induction was blocked by actinomycin D (1 µg/ml) and cycloheximide (5 µg/ml) but was not affected by 1-ß-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine at a concentration (5 µg/ml) that blocked DNA synthesis 99%. These results indicate that a number of malignant human cell lines produce the subunits of both placental and pituitary gonadotropins and that there is frequently an excess secretion of the free subunit common to these hormones.

¹ Research sponsored by the National Cancer Institute under Contract N01-CO-75380 with Litton Bionetics, Inc.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 3/19/79. Accepted 6/22/79.

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