Stimulative effect of nerve growth factor on alpha-aminoisobutyric acid uptake and Na,K-ATPase activity in superior cervical sympathetic ganglia excised from adult rats.

Effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) on the uptake of non-metabolizable alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) and on Na,K-ATPase activity in superior cervical sympathetic ganglia (SCG) excised from adult rats were examined during aerobic incubation in vitro. Active uptake of labelled AIB into isolated SCG during 1 to 5 hours incubation at 37 degrees C was significantly accelerated by the addition of NGF to the incubation medium in a dose-dependent manner. Although the Km value of the AIB uptake by the SCG did not change with the addition of NGF, Vmax was nearly doubled. The NGF-evoked increase in AIB uptake was antagonized by the further addition of its specific antiserum in a dose-dependent fashion, and was largely suppressed in a medium containing ouabain. In SCG, axotomized one week prior to the examination, from which most of the neurons had disappeared and reactive proliferation of satellite glial components was in progress, the NGF-induced acceleration of AIB uptake was completely absent. The ganglionic Na,K-ATPase activity was greatly stimulated in the presence of NGF, and the effect was completely eliminated in the axotomized SCG. These results strongly suggest that the NGF-induced acceleration of active AIB uptake by the isolated SCG occurs not in glial cells but exclusively in the neuronal components with the apparent coupling of an Na ion extrusion process.