Chemically induced esthesioneuroepithelioma: a cytogenetic, cell culture and biochemical investigation with implications for tumor histogenesis.

Chemically induced esthesioneuroepitheliomas (ENE) in rats were subjected to tissue culture experiments, biochemical evaluations for catecholamines and chromosomal analyses. The most conspicuous cytogenetic finding was a C1 marker chromosome in addition to numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations. Regarding the overwhelming similarity between human ENE and experimentally induced ENE, similar cytogenetic aberrations in its human counterpart are postulated. Biochemically, no catecholamines or their metabolic precursors could be identified, thus distinguishing ENE from sympathetic neuroblastomas. No keratin-positive cells could be found in the primary tumor or in the cell cultures studied, thus showing that immunohistology can be a valuable tool for differentiating ENE from anaplastic carcinomas.