Simultaneous suppression of cdc2 and cdk2 activities induces neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells

The involvement of cdc2 and cdk2 during neuronal differentiation in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells was examined. When PC12 cells were cultured with nerve growth factor (NGF), expression of cdc2 decreased significantly after day 5, while expression of cdk2 decreased gradually after day 7. Cells overexpressing cdc2 or cdk2 were resistant to NGF-induced differentiation and growth suppression, and maintained high cdc2 or cdk2 kinase activity, respectively, during NGF treatment. In contrast, the NGF-treated parental cells showed a marked decline in these kinase activities after day 3. When PC12 cells were treated with specific inhibitors of cdc2/cdk2 (butyrolactone-I, olomoucin), they showed marked neurite extension and up-regulation of microtubule-associated protein 2 expression. In addition, treatment with mixtures of antisense oligonucleotides for cdc2 and cdk2 resulted in down-regulation of both cdc2 and cdk2 kinase activities as well as significant neurite outgrowth and up-regulation of microtubule-associated protein 2 expression. However, neurite outgrowth was not observed in cells treated with either single antisense oligonucleotide, or antisense cdc2 + cdk4 or cdk2 + cdk4 oligonucleotide mixtures. These results suggest that simultaneous down-regulation of cdc2 and cdk2 activity is sufficient and necessary for neuronal differentiation in PC12 cells.