Regeneration and protein synthesis in the spinal cord: the influence of ACTH-like peptides on cell-free protein synthesis.

To measure protein synthesis at the level of the cell bodies of motoneurons of the sciatic nerve, anterior horns were punched out of the spinal cord using microdissection techniques and a cell-free system was prepared. Injections of ACTH1-16 and ACTH4-10 were shown to enhance protein synthesis in the cell-free system, 1.5 h after treatment. Neither crush lesion of the sciatic nerve nor systemic treatment with ACTH4-10 produced clear changes in overall protein synthesis. Thus, the increase in overall protein synthesis by acute treatment with ACTH-like peptides cannot explain the previously reported stimulation of axonal regeneration after nerve crush.