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Induction of ornithine decarboxylase by nerve growth factor dissociated from effects on survival and neurite outgrowth

Nature volume 276, pages 191–194 (1978)Cite this article

Abstract

SEVERAL eukaryotic cell types respond to a variety of hormones or growth-promoting agents by a rapid induction of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity (for reviews see refs 1, 2). This enzyme2 and the polyamines whose synthesis it catalyses1 have been suggested in turn to play a part in mediating subsequent cellular responses to such hormone or replication factors. Among the agents shown to affect ODC activity is nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein which affects the differentiation and survival of sympathetic and responsive sensory neurones3. MacDonnell et al.4 have demonstrated that treatment of rat superior cervical ganglia with NGF causes a rapid (maximal by 6–7 h), transcription-dependent increase in ODC activity. NGF treatment has also been reported to increase ODC activity in rat brain5. Such findings have led to the suggestion that ODC may mediate other responses of neurones to NGF4. We show here, however, that suppression of ODC activity and of its induction do not interfere with several other responses to NGF such as promotion of neurite outgrowth, maintenance of survival and increase in cell size. Such findings may be relevant to the possible role of ODC induction in other differentiating systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuropathology, Harvard Medical School, and Department of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115

    LLOYD A. GREENE & JEFFREY C. MCGUIRE

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  1. LLOYD A. GREENE
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  2. JEFFREY C. MCGUIRE
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GREENE, L., MCGUIRE, J. Induction of ornithine decarboxylase by nerve growth factor dissociated from effects on survival and neurite outgrowth. Nature 276, 191–194 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276191a0

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