NGF increases cell survival rates under serum deprived conditions

The known effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) are induction of differentiation and promotion of survival. We analysed the effects of exogenously added 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 concentrations 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 this study we could clearly show two different effects: (1) proliferation was not influenced by NGF under high, medium or low serum and (2) survival rates increased under dramatic or complete serum deprivation, indicating that NGF acts as survival factor against cell death or cell cytostasis.