Mitogenic effect of myelinated vs unmyelinated garfish nerve extracts.

Mitogenic activities in crude extracts of unmyelinated olfactory nerves and myelinated trigeminal nerves of the garfish Lepisosteus osseus were compared. Extracts of each nerve type were added in a range of protein concentrations to serum-starved, subconfluent cultures of BALB/c 3T3 cells. At low protein concentrations (50-250 micrograms/ml) myelinated nerve extracts produced more [3H]thymidine incorporation in the cultured cells than unmyelinated nerve extracts, while at higher concentrations (500-1000 micrograms/ml), the latter caused as much DNA synthesis as the myelinated nerve extracts, surpassing them at the highest concentrations tested. The results suggest that both axonal and myelin components contribute to the growth-promoting activity in nerve tissue.