CNTF promotes the survival of neonatal rat corticospinal neurons in vitro.

Corticospinal neurons were identified in cell cultures of neonatal rat cortex by immunostaining of cholera toxin B subunit (CTB), retrogradely transported from the cervical part of the spinal cord. The CTB-immunoreactive neurons were larger than the neurons in the overall (unstained) neuronal population and represented a small fraction of it (average of 0.3%) after 6 hours in vitro. The number of both total and CTB-labeled neurons declined progressively with time in culture. The neuronal death was, however, markedly faster in the CTB-labeled neuronal population than in the overall neuronal population. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) promoted the survival of CTB-positive corticospinal neurons in a dose-dependent manner; with CNTF, the death rate of the CTB-labeled neurons became identical to that of the overall population.