Cholinergic differentiation of cultured sympathetic neurons induced by retinoic acid. Induction of choline acetyltransferase-mRNA and suppression of tyrosine hydroxylase-mRNA levels.

Here we show that retinoic acid (RA) has the ability to alter the transmitter phenotype of cultured sympathetic neurons from newborn rats superior cervical ganglia (SCG). In the presence of RA, the level of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) mRNA was increased, while the level of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA was reduced in the cultured SCG neurons. Selective PCR amplification of different upstream regions of the ChAT-mRNA indicates that RA promotes the transcription of ChAT gene from R and M exons. The RA-induced upregulation of ChAT-mRNA level was significantly diminished by the chronic treatment with phorbol ester, suggesting that PKC has an important role in the induction of ChAT-mRNA in this system.