Latent ability to produce human chorionic gonadotropin in response to dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate in the BeWo-NBC trophoblastic cell line.

Abstract

The BeWo-NBC trophoblastic cell line secretes predominantly large forms of hCG± and has almost totally lost the ability to produce hCG² or complete hCG² under normal culture conditions (hCG:hCG±, <0.05). This secretion pattern also exists in some cell lines (HeLa, ChaGo, and EICo) of nontrophoblastic origin (Nature 268: 543, 1977; In Vitro 14: 775, 1978). Accordingly, BeWo-NBC cells were employed to test their response to butyrate, a stimulator of hCG and subunit secretion in nontrophoblastic cells, and to dbT (1 mM N6,O2- dibutyryl cAMP plus 1 mM theophylline), a stimulator of hCG secretion in trophoblastic cells. Butyrate had no effect on ± subunit secretion and produced only slight (1.5- to 2.5-fold) stimulation of hCG/hCG/² secretion in BeWo-NBC cells. By contrast, dbT stimulated hCG/hCG² secretion by 11, 122, and 640 times after 1, 2, and 3 days of incubation with BeWo-NBC cells compared to only 1.8-, 19-, and 70-fold stimulation of asubunit secretion. These results indicate that the ability to produ...