DIFFERENTIATION AND SURVIVAL INFLUENCES OF GROWTH-FACTORS IN HUMAN NEUROBLASTOMA

Human neuroblastoma cell lines are established from high-stage, highly malignant tumours. Despite this and the fact that these tumours are a rrested at an early, immature stage, many cell lines have the capacity to undergo neuronal differentiation under proper growth conditions. O ne such cell line is the noradrenergic SH-SY5Y cell line. These cells can be induced to mature by a variety of modalities, resulting in diff erent mature phenotypes. The use of this cell system as a model to stu dy the stem cell character of neuroblastoma is reviewed and discussed. In particular, we focus on growth factor dependencies in the SH-SY5Y system, and compare that to the normal situation, i.e. growth factor c ontrol of sympathetic neuronal and neuroendocrine differentiation duri ng human and rat embyrogenesis.