Trophic effects of enkephalin, beta-endorphine and dynorphine on ventral spinal cord in culture.

We studied trophic effects of enkephalin (ENK), beta-endorphine (END) and dynorphine (DYN) on explanted cultures of ventral spinal cord from 13-14 day old rat embryo. The addition of each of these three neuropeptides to the growth medium caused no changes in neurite extension and in increased number of glial cells compared to control samples. The results indicate that neurite appearance is neither prompted nor inhibited by addition of ENK, END and DYN. It is considered that ENK, END and DYN are not growth factor of cultured ventral spinal cord of rat embryo.