Morphogenesis of adult pancreas in vitro

A procedure is described for maintaining primary culture of adult Syrian golden hamster pancreas cells for prolonged periods (14-16 days) on a layer of irradiated mouse fibroblast cell line: C3H10T1/2 cells. Morphologically the cultures of both exocrine and endocrine cells retained many characteristics of the pancreas in vivo. Three types of colonies were identified by light and electron microscopy. The Type-1 acinar cells exhibited rapid changes and cell selection during the first 5 days in culture. The ductular cells, Type-2 colonies, developed a stable slow-growing rate of stationary culture. Their colonies represented the most differentiated Type of in vitro cells and epithelial character, by developing characteristic "dome-formation". The islet cells, Type-3 colony maintained also their structural characteristics up to 14-16 days in culture. This study demonstrated the ability of fibroblastic feeder cells to promote the epithelial feature of adult hamster pancreas for prolonged periods in vitro.