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The dissociated sympathetic neurons maintained in culture without direct contact with glia cells keep up some enzymatic activities, like those of carboxylic esterases, of succinic-dehydrogenase (SDH), glutamic-dehydrogenase (GDH), monoamine oxydase (MAO), lactic-dehydrogenase (LDH) and alcoholic dehydrogenase (ADH) for more or less long periods.

C1300 neuroblastoma cells in vitro retain the ability of neuronal differentiation (Augusti- Tocco and Sato, 1969; Schubert et al., 1969). This maturation of neoplastic immature neuroblasts can be induced by various molecular environments: suppression of fetal serum in the culture medium (Seeds et al., 1970) incubation with BrdU (Schubert and Jacob, 1970) or BcAMP (Furmanski et al., 1971), X-ray irradiation (Prasad, 1971), cultivation with NGF (Hermetet et al., 1972a). Different cellular events were used as proofs of neuronal differentiation: growth of expansions and the presence of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of neurotransmitters (Augusti-Tocco and Sato, 1969); changes in oxidative metabolism (Ciesielski-Treska et al., 1972); neuronal type pharmacological reactivity (Hermetet et al., 1972b). The cultures of neuroblastoma cells may be useful for genetic mapping, in studying the maturation of neural morphology and function, as well as the effects of the molecular microenvironment.