Estrogen-sensitive cell lines: uptake of labeled sex steroids and growth properties

Cells of a rat pituitary cell line injected into Wistar/Furth rats produce tumors when inoculated into intact females or estradiol-17β primed males. No tumors are produced when the same number of cells are injected into spayed females, intact males or castrated males. Experiments carried out in animals and in tissue culture indicate the selective uptake of these cells for physiological amounts of estradiol-17β when compared with testosterone and when compared with an undifferentiated cell line.