NGF and proNGF activate functionally distinct mRNAs in PC12 cells: an early gene expression profiling

The biological activities of NGF and of its precursor proNGF are quite distinct, due to different receptor binding profiles, but nothing is known about how proNGF regulates gene expression. We performed experiments to address this question, by verifying whether a proNGF specific transcriptional signature, distinct from that of NGF, could be identified. To this aim, we studied gene expression regulation by proNGF and NGF in PC12 cells incubated for 1 and 4 hours with recombinant NGF and proNGF, in its wild-type or in a furin-cleavage resistant form. mRNA expression profiles were analyzed by whole genome microarrays at these early time points, in order to identify specific profiles of NGF and proNGF. Three-conditions experiment: PC12 cells were treated with NGF, wild type proNGF precursor (proNGF-WT), furin resistant mutated proNGF precursor (proNGF-KR) for 1 and 4 hours. Two biological replicates were performed for each condition. RNA was extracted after 1 hour and 4 hours of treatment for each treatment.