Effects of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy on the parathyroid gland in nude mice.

The ultrastructure of parathyroid chief cells was examined from four groups of nude mice (NIH:Swiss) with different serum calcium concentrations. The groups consisted of eight male mice with hypercalcemia induced by transplantable canine adenocarcinoma (CAC-8), eight female mice with hypercalcemia induced by infusion of parathyroid hormone-related protein, ten male control mice, and six male mice fed a low calcium (0.01%) diet. Hypercalcemia induced by malignancy or parathyroid hormone-related protein infusion was associated with low serum phosphorus concentration, a decrease in the number of secretory and prosecretory granules in the parathyroid chief cells, and an increase in the cytoplasmic area of chief cells. Prominent myelinlike membranous whorls were present in the cytoplasm of chief cells of tumor-bearing and parathyroid hormone-related protein-infused hypercalcemic mice. Mice fed a low calcium diet had decreases in the number of secretory granules and cell area but increases in the number of prosecretory granules compared with control mice. The number of mitochondria and the nuclear area of chief cells were similar in all four groups. The prominent membranous whorls and increased cytoplasmic area of chief cells from these hypercalcemic mice mark these cells as distinctly different from the parathyroid chief cells of other species with hypercalcemia.