Enhancement of choline acetyltransferase activity in coculture of rat septal and hippocampal neurons.

We report that choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity and neuronal survival were enhanced in rat septal neurons cocultured with hippocampal neurons. The enhancement of ChAT activity also occurred as a result of the addition of hippocampal conditioned medium (HpCM). When septal neurons from embryonic day 17 (E17) rats were cocultured with hippocampal neurons, ChAT activity was increased 2-fold compared with homogeneous culture of septal neurons. By contrast, no increase in ChAT activity was observed in coculture of septal and neocortical neurons. Treatment with HpCM obtained from cultured E19 rat hippocampal neurons enhanced the ChAT activity of E17 rat septal neurons. The enhancement of ChAT activity caused by coculture with hippocampal neurons and that caused by the addition of HpCM were not blocked by the addition of anti-nerve growth factor (NGF) antibody, suggesting that NGF, which is known to increase the ChAT activity of septal neurons both in vivo and in vitro, did not participate in the increase of ChAT activity. These findings indicate that possible target-derived neurotrophic factor(s), other than NGF, from hippocampal neurons enhance(s) the ChAT activity of septal neurons.