PURPOSE: To efficiently produce NGF useful for the growth, regeneration, maintenance or the like of nerves, by fusing a mouse submandibular cell with a Chinese hamster-originated V79 cell and culturing the obtained syncytium strain in a serum-free medium.
CONSTITUTION: Chinese hamster-originated V79 cells are treated with ethyl methanesulfonate to screen a clone resistant against 6-thioguanine. A mouse glandula submandibularis is extirpated, cut in small pieces and subsequently treated with tryptophane/EDTA to disperse its cells, thereby providing mouse submandibular cells. Two kinds of these cells are mixed with each other and treated with PEG 1500 to cause a fusion between the cells. The resulting syncytiums are cultured in a HAT medium and screened to give the objective syncytium having a high NGF (nerve growth factor) content. The syncytium is cultured in a serum-free medium, and the NGF is isolated from the supernatant of the cultured product.
TAKETOMI MASAKO
TSUDA HIROHISA
INUI NAOMICHI
