Long-term effects of ciliary neurotrophic factor on the survival of vasopressin magnocellular neurones in the rat supraoptic nucleus in vitro.

The use of hypothalamic organotypic cultures for the long-term study of mechanisms in magnocellular neurones (MCNs) of the hypothalamic-neurohypophysial system has been limited by the relatively poor maintenance of the vasopressin MCNs in vitro. Recent studies have shown that addition of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) to the media significantly reduced the apoptosis of both oxytocin and vasopressin MCNs. Here, we studied various temporal factors in the CNTF treatment that can influence the efficacy of MCN survival. Immunohistochemistry was used to identify and count surviving vasopressin and oxytocin MCNs in the supraoptic nucleus (SON) in hypothalamic slices cultured in the presence of CNTF (10 ng/ml media) for various time intervals, and in situ hybridization for vasopressin mRNA was used to evaluate the vasopressin mRNA gene expression in the SON under the same conditions. The presence of CNTF in the medium for 10 days produced a maximal increase in the survival of vasopressin MCNs (by 11-fold) and in the survival of oxytocin-MCNs (by approximately four-fold) over controls. These effects persisted for an additional 7-10 days even in the absence of CNTF. The ability of CNTF to increase survival of the MCNs or increase vasopressin mRNA levels in the SON required that the CNTF be present during the initial 7-10 days of culture. CNTF failed to rescue vasopressin or oxytocin MCNs when added to the media only for the last 7 days of a total of 14 days in vitro. Similar results were observed when SON vasopressin mRNA levels were measured. These results indicate that the presence of CNTF is required at the outset to rescue the vasopressin and oxytocin MCN from axotomy induced apoptosis, and that, after 10 days in CNTF, the MCNs no longer require the CNTF for survival.