Primary tissue culture of human adrenocortical Conn's adenomata. Bromocriptine as a possible agonist-antagonist of angiotensin at the cellular level.

Angiotensin II-induced the hypertrophy of the cytoplasmic compartment and significantly increased (5-3H)uridine incorporation into RNA species by Conn's human adult adenomatous cells in primary tissue culture. On its own, bromocriptine, while enlarging only the nucleolar compartment, also intensely stimulated the incorporation of (5-3H)uridine into RNA species by the cultured adrenocortical adenomatous cells. However, an equimolar mixture of angiotensin II and bromocriptine was totally ineffective, eliciting no change in cellular morphometry or isotope incorporation with respect to the control specimens run in parallel. The present findings support the view that bromocriptine can influence the metabolism of Conn's cells directly at the cellular level by acting as an agonist-antagonist of angiotensin.