Localization of neuron-specific enolase in mouse spinal neurons grown in tissue culture.

Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) is an isoenzyme of the glycolytic enzyme enolase (EC 4.2.1.11) which also has a muscle and liver isoenzyme. Previous work has shown NSE to be specifically localized to neurons and neuroendocrine cells, but the application of NSE as a marker for cell cultures has not been investigated. Primary culture of central nervous system tissue derived from mice have been used to study optimal fixation procedures. The results show that NSE can serve as a useful alternative to non-specific histochemical strains or strictly morphologic criteria for identifying nerve cells.