Intradermal implants of histotypic adrenal gland rotary cultures

The implantation of histotypic adrenal gland cultures is described in the present study. The cultures were prepared from mice at birth and were rotary incubated for 10 days. When the cells reached phenotypic maturation, they were implanted in the dermal bed of the auricular pavilion of young adult mice. This location was ideal for implantation because transillumination enabled daily inspection of the progress of implant survival. Twenty days after implantation, the implants and associated tissues were removed to study the degree of maturation and the viability of the implants. Some cultures showed a moderate percentage of steroidal cells, while others demonstrated a high predominance of the chromaffin cells. All the implanted cultures successfully survived a postoperative period of 20 days. Both adrenergic and noradrenergic cells reached their maximum grade of cytological differentiation and neither inflammatory reactions nor adverse immunological effects were observed. On the contrary, the implants were profusely vascularized by the host tissue, particularly in those implants with a higher content of chromaffin cells.