7S NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR HAS DIFFERENT BIOLOGICAL-ACTIVITY FROM 2.5S NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR INVITRO

It is considered that two molecular forms of nerve growth factor (NGF) , that is 7S NGF and 2.5S NGF have the identical neurotrophic effect o n neurons. We now report that 7S NGF has different biological activiti es from 2.5S NGF in vitro. 7S NGF could promote the survival and neuri te outgrowth of neurons from newborn rat hippocampus, cortex and cereb ellum and stimulate the proliferation of astrocytes in vitro, but 2.5S NGF had no such effect.