Interleukin-2 as a neurotrophic factor for supporting the survival of neurons cultured from various regions of fetal rat brain.
Interleukin(IL)-2 supported the survival and enhanced neurite extension of cultured hippocampal neurons prepared from embryonic 18-day-old rats. This neurotrophic effect was observed at concentrations of 2 to 200 U/ml, and almost all the neurons could survive for more than 2 days in the presence of 200 U/ml of IL-2. This viability-promoting effect of IL-2 on the neurons was completely blocked with anti-IL-2 antibodies. IL-2 also supported the survival of cultured cortical, striatal, and septal neurons. These results indicate that IL-2 has a survival-promoting effect on a wide variety of neurons. On the other hand, IL-2 did not affect the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity of striatal neurons, suggesting that this cytokine does not act as a differentiation factor for striatal cholinergic neurons.
Awatsuji
H
H
Department of Molecular Biology, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Japan.
Furukawa
Y
Y
Nakajima
M
M
Furukawa
S
S
Hayashi
K
K
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000196:embryology; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000196:embryology; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000196:embryology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000196:embryology; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology
D007376:Interleukin-2; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase