Distinct effects of bFGF and PDGF on oligodendrocyte progenitor cells

We have compared the effects of platelet-derived (PDGF) and basic fibroblast (bFGF) growth factors on the shape, migration, and differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, the precursors of myelin-forming cells in the CNS. In the presence of bFGF, oligodendrocyte progenitors purified from rat neonatal brain cultures were stellate, non-motile, and had a morphological complexity of 1.26 +/- 0.03 as measured by fractal dimension (D). These cells expressed transcripts encoding the POU-homeodomain transcription factor Oct-6, but not myelin genes. Upon addition of PDGF, bFGF-treated cells became motile and twofold less complex in shape (D = 1.19 +/- 0.03). These changes occurred within 6 +/- 4 h and were dependent on de novo transcription and translation, but not DNA synthesis. Upon removal of PDGF the cells reverted to their stellate shape (D = 1.26). Removal of both bFGF and PDGF resulted in oligodendrocyte differentiation after 3 days, with a fourfold increase in complexity of shape (D = 1.55 +/- 0.08), loss of Oct-6 transcripts, and gain of myelin transcripts. Thus PDGF is both necessary and sufficient to induce a motile state in progenitor cells growing in the presence of bFGF. Together with our previous data (McKinnon et al.: Neuron 5:603, 1990), our results suggest that bFGF and PDGF may control distinct phases of proliferation and migration of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in vivo.