Epinephrine synthesis in the PC12 pheochromocytoma cell line

PC12 is a rat pheochromocytoma cell line which has been increasingly used as a model system for both neural differentiation and chromaffin cell function. PC12 cells have been reported to synthesize dopamine and norepinephrine, but not epinephrine. We have found that PC12 cells do synthesize small amounts of epinephrine and that dexamethasone increases both epinephrine content as well as phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase (PNMT) activity. These results suggest that the PC12 cell line may be useful in the investigation of the regulation of PNMT.