NGF increases cell survival rates under serum deprived conditions

The known effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) are induction of differentia tion and promotion of survival. We analysed the effects of exogenously adde d NGF on rat C6 and 9L glioma cells and the rat pheochromocytoma cell line PC12. Cells were seeded into 96-well plates and exposed to different concen trations of FCS (10%, 5%, 1%, 0.5% and no FCS) supplemented with or without 50 ng/ml NGF for up to 120 hours. Cell survival was measured using the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide)-assay. In t his study we could clearly show two different effects: (1) proliferation wa s not influenced by NGF under high, medium or low serum and (2) survival ra tes increased under dramatic or complete serum deprivation, indicating that NGF acts as survival factor against cell death or cell cytostasis.