scholarly journals Role of nerve growth factor in the development of rat sympathetic neurons in vitro. III. Effect on acetylcholine production.

1977 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 712-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
L L Chun ◽  
P H Patterson

The effect of nerve growth factor (NGF) on the development of cholinergic sympathetic neurons was studied in cultures grown either on monolayers of dissociated rat heart cells or in medium conditioned by them. In the presence of rat heart cells the absolute requirement of neurons for exogenous NGF was partially spared. The ability of heart cells to support neuronal survival was due at least in part to production of a diffusable NGF-like substance into the medium. Although some neurons survived on the heart cell monolayer without added NGF, increased levels of exogenous NGF increased neuronal survival until saturation was achieved at 0.5 microgram/ml 7S NGF. The ability of neurons to produce acetylcholine (ACh) from choline was also dependent on the level of exogenous NGF. In mixed neuron-heart cell cultures, NGF increased both ACh and catecholamine (CA) production per neuron to the same extent; saturation occurred at 1 microgram/ml 7S NGF. As cholinergic neurons developed in culture, they became less dependent on NGF for survival and ACh production, but even in older cultures approximately 40% of the neurons died when NGF was withdrawn. Thus, NGF is as necessary for survival, growth, and differentiation of sympathetic neurons when the neurons express cholinergic functions as when the neurons express adrenergic functions (4, 5).

1977 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 694-704 ◽  
Author(s):  
L L Chun ◽  
P H Patterson

To study the effect of nerve growth factor (NGF) on neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation, cultures of dissociated neonatal rat sympathetic neurons virtually free of other cell types were maintained for 3-4 wk. In the absence of NGF, the neurons did not survive for more than a day. Increased levels of NGF increased neuronal survival and growth (total protein and total lipid phosphate); saturation occurred at 0.5 microgram/ml 7S NGF. Neuronal differentiation examined by measuring catecholamine (CA) production from tyrosine also depended on the level of NGF in the culture medium. As the NGF concentration was raised, CA production per neuron, per nanogram protein, or per picomole lipid phosphate increased until saturation was achieved between 1 and 5 microgram/ml 7S NGF. Thus, NGF induces neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation of CA production in a dose-dependent fashion. Neuronal growth and differentiation were quantitatively compared in the presence of the high and low molecular weight forms of NGF; no significant functional differences were found.


1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (3) ◽  
pp. 1352-1361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saobo Lei ◽  
William F. Dryden ◽  
Peter A. Smith

Lei, Saobo, William F. Dryden, and Peter A. Smith. Involvement of Ras/MAP kinase in the regulation of Ca2+ channels in adult bullfrog sympathetic neurons by nerve growth factor. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 1352–1361, 1998. The cellular mechanisms that underlie nerve growth factor (NGF) induced increase in Ca2+-channel current in adult bullfrog sympathetic B-neurons were examined by whole cell recording techniques. Cells were maintained at low density in neuron-enriched, defined-medium, serum-free tissue culture for 6 days in the presence or absence of NGF (200 ng/ml). The increase in Ba2+ current ( I Ba) density induced by NGF was attenuated by the RNA synthesis inhibitor cordycepin (20 μM), by the DNA transcription inhibitor actinomycin D (0.01 μg/ml), by inhibitors of Ras isoprenylation (perillic acid 0.1–1.0 mM or α-hydroxyfarnesylphosphonic acid 10–100 μM), by tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein (20 μM) or lavendustin A (1 μM), and by PD98059 (10–100 μM), an inhibitor of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase. Inhibitors of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway (wortmannin, 100 nM, or LY29400, 100 μM) were ineffective as were inhibitors of phospholipase Cγ (U73122 or neomycin, both 100 μM). The effect of NGF persisted in Ca2+-free medium that contained 1.8 mM Mg2+ and 2 mM ethylene glycol-bis(β-aminoethyl ether)- N, N, N′, N′-tetraacetic acid. It was mimicked by a Trk antibody that was capable of inducing neurite outgrowth in explant cultures of bullfrog sympathetic ganglion. Antibodies raised against the low-affinity p75 neurotrophin receptor were ineffective in blocking the effect of NGF on I Ba. These results suggest that NGF-induced increase in Ca2+ channel current in adult sympathetic neurons results, at least in part, from new channel synthesis after Trk activation of Ras and mitogen activated protein kinase by a mechanism that is independent of extracellular Ca2+.


1988 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
P G Chesa ◽  
W J Rettig ◽  
T M Thomson ◽  
L J Old ◽  
M R Melamed

Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a polypeptide important for normal development of the nervous system and promotion of survival and differentiation of sensory and sympathetic neurons in culture. The cellular effects of NGF are mediated by a specific cell surface molecule, nerve growth factor receptor (NGF-R). In the present study we have used a monoclonal antibody against human NGF-R to examine, by the avidin-biotin-immunoperoxidase method, the receptor distribution in a wide range of normal tissues and in more than 200 malignant tumors. Our results show that (a) human NGF-R is expressed in the peripheral nervous system but not in any of the central nervous system areas tested; (b) NGF-R expression is not restricted to neural tissues but is also found in a number of normal epithelial, mesenchymal, and lymphoid tissues; (c) NGF-R expression changes during normal development; and (d) NGF-R expression in malignant tumors generally parallels its normal tissue distribution. Thus, NGF-R is detected in a proportion of neuroectoderm-derived tumors, carcinomas, and lymphomas, and also in a characteristic group of small round-cell tumors (Ewing's sarcomas and embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas). These findings suggest a normal regulatory role for NGF in both neuronal and non-neuronal cells and identify a range of human tumors in which the NGF/NGF-R system may contribute to the malignant phenotype.


1992 ◽  
Vol 119 (6) ◽  
pp. 1669-1680 ◽  
Author(s):  
P W Mesner ◽  
T R Winters ◽  
S H Green

Previous studies have shown that in neuronal cells the developmental phenomenon of programmed cell death is an active process, requiring synthesis of both RNA and protein. This presumably reflects a requirement for novel gene products to effect cell death. It is shown here that the death of nerve growth factor-deprived neuronal PC12 cells occurs at the same rate as that of rat sympathetic neurons and, like rat sympathetic neurons, involves new transcription and translation. In nerve growth factor-deprived neuronal PC12 cells, a decline in metabolic activity, assessed by uptake of [3H]2-deoxyglucose, precedes the decline in cell number, assessed by counts of trypan blue-excluding cells. Both declines are prevented by actinomycin D and anisomycin. In contrast, the death of nonneuronal (chromaffin-like) PC12 cells is not inhibited by transcription or translation inhibitors and thus does not require new protein synthesis. DNA fragmentation by internucleosomal cleavage does not appear to be a consistent or significant aspect of cell death in sympathetic neurons, neuronal PC12 cells, or nonneuronal PC12 cells, notwithstanding that the putative nuclease inhibitor aurintricarboxylic acid protects sympathetic neurons, as well as neuronal and nonneuronal PC12 cells, from death induced by trophic factor removal. Both phenotypic classes of PC12 cells respond to aurintricarboxylic acid with similar dose-response characteristics. Our results indicate that programmed cell death in neuronal PC12 cells, but not in nonneuronal PC12 cells, resembles programmed cell death in sympathetic neurons in significant mechanistic aspects: time course, role of new protein synthesis, and lack of a significant degree of DNA fragmentation.


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