Release of the predicted calcitonin gene-related peptide from cultured rat trigeminal ganglion cells.

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) is a putative novel neuropeptide predicted on the basis of alternative RNA processing events of primary transcripts of the calcitonin gene. Distinct mRNAs encoding either calcitonin or CGRP are generated from the calcitonin gene RNA transcript in what appears to be a tissue-specific manner. The predicted peptide has now been detected immunocytochemically in discrete regions of the central and peripheral nervous systems and potent in vivo actions have been reported for centrally and peripherally administered synthetic CGRP. However, so far there is no evidence that CGRP is secreted or released by intact cells. The present experiments investigated the possible secretion of CGRP in vitro using primary dispersed cell cultures of the adult rat trigeminal ganglion, which previously has been found to contain large amounts of CGRP mRNA (ref. 2). We report here that immunoreactive CGRP is spontaneously released by cultured trigeminal ganglion cells and that secretion is stimulated by incubation in high potassium medium in a calcium-dependent fashion. Chromatographic characterization of the secreted CGRP-like immunoreactivity (CGRP-LI) isolated only one molecular form which appears to be similar or identical to the predicted rat CGRP (1-37).