Enhanced expression of neurotrophic factors by C6 rat glioma cells after transfection with glia maturation factor.

Glia maturation factor (GMF) is a 17-kDa protein unique to the nervous system. Although GMF was initially characterized as a growth/differentiation factor, the absence of a leader sequence and its intracellular localization in normal brain suggest an intracellularfunction as well. In this paper we transfected the C6 glioma cells with GMF cDNA by infecting the cells with a GMF/adenovirus construct. The transfected cells overexpressed GMF but did not secret the protein into the culture medium. However, the transfected cells showed an increased expression of the neurotrophic factors including nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). The increase in neurotrophic activity of the C6 cell conditioned medium was demonstrable by its ability to promote neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells.