POTENTIATED NECROSIS OF CULTURED CORTICAL-NEURONS BY NEUROTROPHINS

The effects of neurotrophins on several forms of neuronal degeneration in murine cortical cell cultures were examined. Consistent with other studies, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, neurotrophin-3, and neuro trophin-4/5 all attenuated the apoptotic death induced by serum depriv ation or exposure lo the calcium channel antagonist nimodipine, Unexpe ctedly, however, 24-hour pretreatment with these same neurotrophins ma rkedly potentiated the necrotic death induced by exposure to oxygen-gl ucose deprivation or N-methyl-D-aspartate. Thus, certain neurotrophins may have opposing effects on different types of death in the same neu rons.