PC12 cell line

[1] It was developed in parallel to the adrenal chromaffin cell model because of its extreme versatility for pharmacological manipulation, ease of culture, and the large amount of information on their proliferation and differentiation.

[4] These qualities provide advantage even though they have smaller vesicles and quantal size, holding only an average of 1.9x10−19 moles of neurotransmitter released.

[4] The vesicles hold catecholamines, mostly dopamine, but also limited amount of norepinephrine, and release of these neurotransmitters give rise to spikes due to changes in current similar to chromaffin cells.

Neuron-like means they share properties similar to neurons, in this case it is referring to releasing neurotransmitter by vesicles.

PC12 cells have been researched to evaluate the potential for pharmaceutical alternation of dopamine metabolites such as DOPAL, an autotoxin implicated in the pathology of Parkinson's disease.