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Human Skeletal Muscle Cells Synthesise a Neuronotrophic Factor Reactive with Spinal Neurons
Author(s) -
Doherty Patrick,
Dickson John G.,
Flanigan Thomas P.,
Walsh Frank S.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1986.tb12935.x
Subject(s) - neurofilament , nerve growth factor , choline acetyltransferase , spinal cord , embryonic stem cell , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , skeletal muscle , in vitro , neuroscience , central nervous system , medicine , endocrinology , biochemistry , immunology , immunohistochemistry , receptor , gene
Retrograde trophic influences originating in the skeletal musculature have been postulated to be involved in regulating survival and differentiation of embryonic motor neurons and reactive terminal sprouting of mature motor fibres. We have previously described the use of a quantitative immunoassay for neurofilament protein to bioassay in vitro the cell‐type‐specific neuronotrophic activity of nerve growth factor (NGF) on sensory ganglion neurons. In the present study, the effect of media conditioned by adult human muscle cells (MCM) on the in vitro development of chicken spinal neurons has been studied using a similar approach. Significant increases in neurofilament protein levels in 7‐day chicken embryonic spinal cord cultures were found with doses of MCM protein as low as 0.4 μg/ml, with a dose‐response relationship yielding maximal and half‐maximal effects at 4 and 1 μg/ml, respectively. Maximal increases in neurofilament protein levels were associated with an approximate twofold increase in neuronal cell survival. MCM also induced increases in choline acetyltransferase activity in chick spinal cord cultures. In both the absence and presence of NGF, MCM did not increase neurofilament protein expression in primary cultures of sensory neurons.