Premium
Epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor‐α can induce neuronal differentiation of rat pheochromocytoma PC 12 cells under particular culture conditions
Author(s) -
Nakafuku Masato,
Kaziro Yoshito
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(93)81169-z
Subject(s) - epidermal growth factor , neurite , nerve growth factor , transforming growth factor , cellular differentiation , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , tgf alpha , growth factor , cell culture , endocrinology , stimulation , medicine , receptor , in vitro , biochemistry , genetics , gene
In rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells, NGF induces neuronal differentiation. Upon stimulation with NGF, Ras is activated to a GTP‐bound form, and the activated Ras can induce neuronal differentiation. Recently, we and others observed that epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor‐α (TGF‐α) can also activate Ras in PC12 cells. This is puzzling since previous reports indicated that EGF stimulates proliferation rather than differentiation in PC12 cells. In this paper, we re‐examined the biological effect of EGF and TGF‐α, and found that these factors can also induce neuronal differentiation under particular culture conditions. Not only the outgrowth of long neurites, but the induction of neurofilament proteins and the metalloprotease transin was also observed in the EGF‐ and TGF‐α‐stimulated cells. These data clearly indicate that in addition to NGF, EGF and TGF‐α can also induce the differentiation of PC12 cells under particular conditions.