Recent results indicate that, in addition to chemical, spatial and mechanical cues, substrate physical cues such as gradients in surface energy may also impact cell functions, such as neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. However, it remains to be determined what surface effect is the most critical in triggering PC12 cell differentiation. Here we show that, beyond continuously probing the sur...

INTRODUCTION Pheochromocytomas are benign or malignant neuroendocrine tumours. The unsatisfactory efficacy of the traditional therapeutic methods for patients with metastatic disease results in a continuing search for more effective and targeted agents. Due to the increased vascularisation of these tumours, inhibitors of angiogenesis could be potentially a new group of drugs in pheochromocytoma...

During the continuous culturing of neural PC12 cells, a drug hypersensitive PC12 mutant cell line (PC12m3) was obtained, which demonstrated high neurite outgrowth when stimulated by various drugs. When the immunosuppressant drug FK506 and nerve growth factor (NGF) were introduced to the PC12m3 cells, the frequency of neurite outgrowth increased approximately 40-fold for NGF alone. However, the ...

Some apoptotic processes, such as phosphatidylserine exposure, are potentially reversible and do not necessarily lead to cell death. However, phosphatidylserine exposure can induce phagocytosis of a cell, resulting in cell death by phagocytosis: phagoptosis. Phagoptosis of neurons by microglia might contribute to neuropathology, whereas phagoptosis of tumour cells by macrophages might limit can...

The present study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of a novel synthetic compound (5zou) on differentiated PC12 cells against 6‑hydroxydopamine (6‑OHDA) and L‑glutamic acid (L‑Glu) neurotoxin‑induced cell injury and the potential mechanisms involved. 5zou is a 2, 2‑disubstituted 1,2‑dihydropyridine. PC12 cells were treated with 6‑OHDA and L‑Glu to establish neurotoxic cell models....

Effects of high concentrations of glucose on cell survival of differentiated PC12 cells were examined. Seven day-culture with D-glucose (9.0-27.0 mg/ml as 2-6-fold of the optimal level) induced cell death in a dose-related manner but 3-day culture with high concentrations of glucose had no effect on cell viability. L-glucose had no effect on viability of PC12 cells, suggesting that D-glucose to...

We have investigated the role of the mitochondrial pathway during cell death following serum and nerve growth factor (NGF)/dibutyryl cyclic AMP (Bt(2)cAMP) withdrawal in undifferentiated or NGF/Bt(2)cAMP-differentiated PC12 cells, respectively. Holocytochrome c, Smac/DIABLO, and Omi/HtrA2 are released rapidly following trophic factor deprivation in PC12 cells. Bcl-2 and Akt inhibited this relea...

The Deleted in Colorectal Cancer (DCC) gene is a candidate tumor suppressor gene that is predicted to encode a transmembrane polypeptide with strong similarity to the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) family. Previous studies have suggested that several different N-CAMs, when expressed in non-neuronal cell types can stimulate neurite outgrowth from PC12 rat pheochromocytoma cells. Based on ...

Forsythenethosides A (1) and B (2), two new phenylethanoid glycosides with an unprecedented 15-membered carbon scaffold ring, were isolated from the fruits of Forsythia suspensa. Their structures, including their geometric configurations, were determined via extensive NMR spectroscopy techniques, especially using 2D NMR data combined with systematic conformational analysis. Forsythenethosides A...

The studies described here characterize abnormalities in the expression of neurofilament (NF) proteins in a clonal rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell line as compared with normal NF proteins in cultured rat sympathetic neurons (RSNs). Cytoskeletal extracts from PC12 cells grown in the presence (PC12+ cells) or absence (PC12- cells) of nerve growth factor (NGF) and from RSNs grown in the presence ...