Prevention of denervation atrophy in muscle: mammalian neurotrophic factor is not transferrin

Atrophy in a denervated muscle results from the disuse caused by paralysis of the muscle, and from the loss of special neurotrophic substances. Daily injections of proteins extracted from rats' sciatic nerves have been shown to prevent the non-disuse atrophy of rats' muscles denervated for 7 days. The trophic factor from chicken sciatic nerve which stimulates differentiation in aneural chick muscle in vitro has been purified and found to be closely similar to transferrin. We undertook to determine whether the trophic properties of mammalian nerve extract on denervated rats' muscles in vivo were due to the presence of serum transferrin in the extract. Atrophy was measured as the reduction in cross-sectional areas of type IIB fibers in the extensor digitorum longus muscle. Muscles denervated for 7 days and injected daily with 1 of several doses of iron-conjugated rat transferrin exhibited a rate of atrophy equivalent to that in denervated muscles that either were not treated or were injected with saline. Denervated muscles injected with crude extract of rats' sciatic nerves had significantly less atrophy than their controls. Removal of transferrin from the crude extract by immunoaffinity chromatography did not diminish its ameliorative effects on denervated muscle. Therefore, the trophic action of mammalian nerve extract on denervated rats' muscles in vivo is not due to the presence of serum transferrin in the extract.