Enhancement of the synthesis and secretion of nerve growth factor in primary cultures of glial cells by proteases: a possible involvement of thrombin.

Newborn rat brain astrocytes cultured in vitro in a chemically defined medium are shown to secrete enhanced levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) when they are exposed to various types of proteases. Proteolytic enzymes such as alpha-thrombin or collagenase induce a continuous, dose-dependent enhancement of the levels of cell-secreted NGF. Incubation of astrocytes for a 24-h period with 300 ng/ml of alpha-thrombin (approximately 9 nM, or 1 U/ml) results in an increase of the levels of cell-secreted NGF by a factor of three- to fourfold, and at doses 10 times higher, stimulation by a factor of up to four- to fivefold was observed. This phenomenon reflects an enhancement of the cellular pool of NGF mRNA, already noticeable after 3 h of treatment, which is preceded by a temporary activation of protooncogenes encoding transcription factors of the AP-1 family, such as c-fos, c-jun or junB. Trypsin, plasmin, alpha-chymotrypsin, or elastase also enhanced, to different extents, the levels of cell-secreted NGF. However, unlike alpha-thrombin or collagenase, these enzymes cause, above a critical concentration, an extensive cell detachment from the solid support, and this is accompanied by a decrease of their activity on the production of NGF, so that their dose-response curves are bell shaped. Stimulation was maximal at those concentrations that cause a limited loosening of the cell-substratum interactions, as evidenced by a retraction of some cell processes after 24 h of treatment. Studies of the effect of alpha-thrombin indicate that the proteolytic activity itself is required to enhance the production of NGF by astrocytes. Inactivation of alpha-thrombin with D-phenyl-alanyl-L-propyl-L-arginine chloromethyl ketone, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, antithrombin III, or hirudin results in a marked decrease of the stimulatory effect. Furthermore, the prolonged presence of alpha-thrombin is required to elicit a maximal effect on the levels of extracellular NGF, which was observed after 48 h of treatment. It is known that some effects of alpha-thrombin require binding to the cell surface. We found that gamma-thrombin, which still has some proteolytic activity but has lost its ability to bind to the cell surface, is almost as potent as alpha-thrombin in promoting the release of NGF. It is concluded that the effect of thrombin on NGF synthesis is essentially mediated by its proteolytic activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)