BCL-2 blocks glutamate toxicity in neural cell lines.

Glutamate has been shown, at high concentrations (5-10 mM), to lead to death in cells of the pheochromocytoma cell line PC12. We report that similar concentrations of glutamate also kill immortalized central neural cell lines, and that the expression of the proto-oncogene bcl-2 in these cell lines blocks glutamate neurotoxicity. Potassium chloride (25 mM) also protects a cerebellar neuronal cell line, but not PC12 cells, from glutamate toxicity.