Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Internalization and cellular pools of never growth factor in pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells

Conference · · Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6286210

Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) binds to a cell surface receptor on responsive neuronal cells to initiate cell maintenance and/or differentiation regimes. The purpose of these studies was to define quantitatively the fate of NGF in PC12 cells with respect to various cellular compartments in a single series of biochemical experiments. Different binding methodologies were evaluated in suspension and on plates. 50 pM SVI-NGF was bound to rat PC12 cells in suspension for 30 min at 37, followed by various methods and combinations of methods to remove subsets of bound ligand. Distinction could be made between NGF bound to fast vs. slow cell surface receptors, NGF bound to slow receptors at the cell surface vs. cell interior, and detergent-soluble vs. cytoskeletally-attached NGF. These treatments defined the relative size of five pools, including the fast receptor (65%), two intracellular compartments (12% and 3%) susceptible to nonionic detergent, and a detergent-stable intracellular pool of ligand (16%). At 37 the cold chase stable and the acid stable pools were about the same size because of rapid internalization, but the slow receptor was measurable at 4. Inhibitors were used to define the route of NGF through the cell from the plasma membrane to degradation. Chloroquine caused accumulation of NGF only in pools that were not associated with the cytoskeleton, implicating this compartment in supplying ligand to the lysosome. Results with cytochalasin B and colchicine and suggested both microfilament and microtubule pathways in NGF degradation. A model for the movement of NGF through the cell was developed based on these observations.

Research Organization:
Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH
OSTI ID:
6286210
Report Number(s):
CONF-870644-
Journal Information:
Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States), Journal Name: Fed. Proc., Fed. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol.; (United States) Vol. 46:6; ISSN FEPRA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English