[Effect of alcohols on nerve growth factor-induced neurite outgrowth from pheochromocytoma PC12h cells]

Effect of alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, and hexanol) on nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced neurite outgrowth from pheochromocytoma PC12h cells, a subclonal line of PC12, was studied. Although the addition of alcohol alone did not induce neurite development, both the NGF-induced increase in neurite length and the frequency of neurite-bearing cells were enhanced by alcohols. However, this stimulating effect of alcohols was detected only within a short time after NGF and alcohol had been added: differences in the average neurite length and in the frequency of neurite formation between the cells treated with NGF alone and those treated with NGF plus alcohol were not significant at 48 hours and 16 hours, respectively, after the start of treatment. The longer the carbon chain of the alcohol, greater enhancing effect on neurite formation. These results suggest that alcohols did not strengthen the final intensity of the NGF effect to elaborate neurites but rather shortened the time required for process formation in response to NGF by presumably increasing the fluidity of plasma membranes of PC12h cells.