Effect of NGF-2 on the survival of chick sensory ganglion neurons in vitro.

The biological activity of NGF-2, the third member of the NGF family, was investigated. Conditioned medium of COS cells transfected with expression plasmid for human NGF-2 cDNA promoted the survival of sensory neurons from dorsal root ganglia (DRG), and nodose ganglia (NG). Supernatant of mock transfected COS cells was less effective for the survival of DRG neurons and ineffective for the survival of NG neurons. These results suggest that NGF-2 is a novel neurotrophic factor whose biological activity is distinct from NGF.