Interleukin‐2 as a neurotrophic factor for supporting the survival of neurons cultured from various regions of fetal rat brain

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Abstract
Interleukin(IL)‐2 supported the survival and enhanced neurite extension of cultured hippocampal neurons prepared from embryonic 18‐day‐old rats. This neurotrophic effect was observed at concentrations of 2 to 200 U/ml, and almost all the neurons could survive for more than 2 days in the presence of 200 U/ml of IL‐2. This viability‐promoting effect of IL‐2 on the neurons was completely blocked with anti‐IL‐2 antibodies. IL‐2 also supported the survival of cultured cortical, striatal, and septal neurons. These results indicate that IL‐2 has a survival‐promoting effect on a wide variety of neurons. On the other hand, IL‐2 did not affect the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity of striatal neurons, suggesting that this cytokine does not act as a differentiation factor for striatal cholinergic neurons.

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