Regulation of neuron-specific enolase isozyme levels during differentiation of murine neuroblastoma cell cultures.

A specific event which accompanies the terminal differentiation of most neurons is the isozymic enolase transition from the ?? form to the ?? and ?? adult neuronal forms. It is partly expressed during maturation of a mouse neuroblastoma clonal cell line (NIE-115). We demonstrate, in these cell cultures, that the significant increase in the concentration of ? gene product, expressed as ?? enolase during differentiation, is due to a parallel and similar increase in its synthesis. The capacities of poly (A)(+) RNA from undifferentiated and differentiated cultures to direct the synthesis of ? gene product were compared in a reticulocyte cell-free protein-synthesizing system. This translating capacity is stimulated in the same proportion as the rate of synthesis of ? antigen in differentiating cell cultures. Therefore the increase in the level of ? protein (expressed mostly as ?? enolase) during differentiation results from the increased translating activity or relative amount of ?mRNA.