Corticotropin-releasing factor-like activity in ACTH producing tumors

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF)-like activity in two different kinds of ACTH-producing tumors (human ectopic ACTH-producing colonic cancer and rat MtT/F4 tumor) was determined by an in vitro method using isolated normal rat pituitary cells. The ACTH content of the post mortem colonic cancer was 5.5 ng/g w.wt. The ACTH content of the medium of MtT/F4 tumor cells was 153+/-32 pg/10(5) cells. The ACTH content of MtT/F4 tumor cell suspensions was elevated with increasing doses of hypothalamic median eminence extract (HME). The response of MtT/F4 tumor cells to HME was suppressed by 1 mug/ml of dexamethasone. Extracts of colonic cancer, MtT/F4 tumor and HME produced elevation of the ACTH content of the medium of isolated rat pituitary cells. The CRF-like activities of two kinds of tumor extracts in multiple dilutions ran parallel to that of HME. The CRF-like activities were 0.037 HME equiv/mg w.wt in MtT/F4 tumor and 0.052 HME equiv/mg w.wt. in colonic cancer. These results demonstrated that CRF-like activity existed in these two kinds of ACTH-producing tumors.