Morphologic differentiation of human immature teratoma cell in vitro

Immature teratoma cells obtained from a patient's ovary were cultured and morphologically characterized in the early culturing stage. The major part of the tumor was composed of neuroglial-like tissues which were surrounded by neuroepithelial-like tissues. The neuroglial-like cells cultured in vitro morphologically differentiated to the epithelioid cells and the morphologic pattern of the culture came to resemble that of the original lesion. Furthermore, some kinds of the differentiated cell grew out from the cell aggregate that grew on the colonies of the neuroglial-like cells. The morphological character of the cultured immature teratoma cells suggests that neuroglial-like cells have totipotency to change to differentiated cells forming a teratoma.