title: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor stimulates survival and neuronal differentiation in cultured avian neural crest.
abstract: The response of trunk neural crest cells taken from precise levels of the neural axis and cultured together with adjacent somites to Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), was examined in cultures grown in a chemically defined medium. In control cultures, the number of neural crest-derived neurons expressing the HNK-1 epitope, increased as a function of somitic level in a caudorostral direction. Treatment of cultures with increasing concentrations of BDNF (50 pg/ml to 1 ng/ml) resulted in a 1.5- to 6-fold stimulation in the number of neurons developing from crest cells excised at advanced and post-migratory stages, whereas early migrating crest cells were responsive only to concentrations equal to or higher than 1 ng/ml of BDNF. Nerve growth factor used at 5 and 30 ng/ml had no effect on survival of HNK-1-positive cells at any of the somitic levels tested. In an attempt to identify the subpopulation of HNK-1-immunoreactive neurons responding to BDNF, control and treated cultures were stained for the HNK-1 antibody in combination with substance P (SP) antibodies (as a marker for sensory neurons). SP immunoreactivity localized to a subpopulation of phase-bright, HNK-1-positive neurons. The absolute number of SP-positive neurons increased 2- to 4-fold upon BDNF treatment; however, their relative proportion within the population expressing the HNK-1 epitope remained essentially unchanged from control to treated cultures (on day 1, 20% as compared to 23.3% and on day 2, 44.6% compared to 49.7% for control and treated cultures, respectively). Taken together, these data suggest that BDNF stimulates primary neuronal differentiation of SP expressing neurons, and/or their survival.
authors.affiliation: Institut d'Embryologie du C.N.R.S., Nogent sur-Marne, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalcheim
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gendreau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003370:Coturnix; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D007700:Kinetics; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins