Pulmonary carcinoid tumors is tissue and organ culture

Pulmonary carcinoid tumors arise from cells whose function is yet to be defined. Conditions for maintenance of cells of these tumors for prolonged periods of time in tissue and organ cultures were established in order to gain insight into their supposed endocrine activity. We succeeded in growing explants of these tumors in organ culture for as long as 5 months without the cells losing their ability to produce large numbers of neurosecretory-type granules.