A muscle-derived factor antagonizes the neurotoxicity of glutamate in dissociated cell cultures of chick telencephalic neurons.

Excitatory amino acids including glutamate are known to reveal considerable neurotoxicity in various nervous systems. Our previous studies revealed that the chick muscle extract contains a factor which promotes the survival of telencephalic neurons. Further investigations clearly showed that this extract contains the factor that antagonizes the neurotoxicity of glutamate in a dissociated telencephalic neuronal culture system optimized for detection of the toxicity. This factor reduced at least the toxicity mediated by non-N-methyl-D-aspartate (non-NMDA) receptor.