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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Protocol for Culturing Sympathetic Neurons from Rat Superior Cervical Ganglia (SCG)
Published on: January 30, 2009
Nerve growth factor induces a gene homologous to the glucocorticoid receptor gene
1Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110.
Abstract:
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is required for the development and survival of sympathetic and neural crest-derived sensory neurons. The mechanism of action of NGF has been extensively studied in the NGF-responsive rat pheochromocytoma cell line, PC12. When treated with NGF, PC12 cells initiate neurite outgrowth and differentiate into cells with a neuronal phenotype. This process is prevented by RNA synthesis inhibitors. NGFI-B is a gene, identified by differential hybridization, that is rapidly, but transiently induced in PC12 cells by NGF. The nucleotide sequence of the NGFI-B gene was determined, and it encodes a 61 kd protein with strong homologies to members of the glucocorticoid receptor gene family. The two regions of homology between NGFI-B and this family of ligand-dependent transcriptional activators are the region corresponding to the DNA-binding domain and the region comprising the ligand-binding domain near the COOH-terminus. NGFI-B, as a possible ligand-dependent transcriptional activator induced by NGF, may play a role in initiating NGF-induced differentiation.
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