Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is a 200-amino acid protein expressed in high concentrations by peripheral nerves and is thought to be important for the survival and regeneration of injured motoneurons (Lin et al., J Biol Chem 265:8942-8947, 1990). To better understand CNTF's role in nerve injury we have characterized the effects of crush injury on the expression of CNTF in adult rat sciatic nerves using specific antibody and RNA probes. Following a crush injury, both the protein and mRNA levels undergo pronounced decreases distal to the crush. These changes in CNTF expression were qualitatively distinct from changes in the expression of the low-affinity NGF receptor (p75NGFR), which increases following crush. Thus, the changes in CNTF levels do not reflect an overall down-regulation of mRNA during degeneration, and are inconsistent with the proposed role of CNTF in neuronal injury, since its levels are decreasing at the same time as the requirement for neurotrophic support is increasing.

A biologically active fusion protein comprising a short hydrophilic leader peptide fused to the N-terminus of rat CNTF was generated using commercially available materials. The coding region for rat CNTF was sub-cloned into the pFLAG-1 vector and transfected into the JM 109 strain of E. coli. The transfected cells expressed high levels of the fusion protein (FLAG-CNTF) following induction by isopropyl beta-D-thiogalactoside (IPTG). FLAG-CNTF is expressed as insoluble material that was resolubilized by extraction with guanidine hydrochloride and purified by immuno-affinity chromatography. Analysis of the purified material by reverse phase HPLC and Western blot analysis indicated that FLAG-CNTF was composed of two closely related species that are greater than 99% pure after affinity chromatography. The purified FLAG-CNTF migrated as a 27 KD doublet on SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Both bands of the doublet were shown to contain the FLAG peptide and CNTF by Western blot analysis, and amino acid sequence analysis demonstrated a single amino acid sequence corresponding to FLAG peptide and the N-terminus of CNTF. The purified fusion protein was tested for biological activity using the IMR-32 human neuroblastoma cell line. Treatment of IMR-32 cells with FLAG-CNTF increased the level of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in these cells 2-3-fold over that of control cells in a dose dependent manner. A direct comparison of the effects of FLAG-CNTF and recombinant human CNTF on IMR-32 ChAT activity showed that both factors exhibited similar potencies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)