Biological and Immunological Properties of Recombinant Human, Rat, and Chicken Nerve Growth Factors: A Comparative Study

Biological and immunological properties of recombinant human, rat, and chicken nerve growth factors (NGFs) were studied and compared. Recombinant NGF proteins were produced in a transient expression system using COS cells and levels of secreted NGF protein were assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of conditioned media from in vivo [³⁵S]cysteine-labeled cell cultures. Antigenic differences among the three NGFs were studied by immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation of secreted cell products using a rabbit polyclonal antiserum against purified mouse NGF, and by a two-site enzyme im-munoassay (EIA) with a monoclonal antibody against mouse NGF. Although all three NGFs were recognized equally well in the immunoblotting, only one-third of the chicken NGF protein could be detected by immunoprecipitation or by the EIA as compared to the rat and human NGFs. Thus, changes in the three-dimensional structure of the NGF molecule are most likely responsible for the antigenic differences between avian and mammalian NGFs. The three NGF proteins were also compared in their ability to displace ¹²⁵I-mouse NGF from low-affinity NGF receptors on rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. Similar displacement curves and values were obtained for each NGF protein, indicating that structural differences among these molecules do not affect low-affinity binding to NGF receptors. Biological activities were studied by the ability of the conditioned media to promote neurite outgrowth from explants of 9 chick sympathetic ganglia and from PC12 ceils. Although the rat system showed a slight preference for the homologous molecule, the morphological changes, dose-response curves, and maximal stimulation values obtained with the different NGFs were practically indistinguishable in the chicken bioassay. The observed differences and similarities among the three NGF proteins are discussed in the context of their evolutionary relationship and their potential therapeutic applications.