PC-12細胞由於具有被神經生長因子﹝NGF﹞誘導分化為類神經細胞的特性，長期以來作為神經科學相關研究的體外模型被廣泛運用。然而在最終所運用於實驗的類神經PC-12細胞中由於分化率的限制，未分化PC-12 細胞對實驗結果所可能造成之難以避免雜訊，一直以來是一個困擾的問題。本實驗利用細胞培養環境的改變，以提高已分化類神經 PC-12細胞的分化程度、降低未分化 PC-12 細胞的增殖能力、提升類神經 PC-12 細胞在整體細胞中的比例，並用此模型作為實驗平台，通過觀察核內基因轉錄因子的變化，進行神經活化後訊息傳遞的研究。在神經活化的模型上，我們選擇麩胺酸(Glutamic acid)活化 NMDA受體引發胞內分子訊息傳遞的模型，對已知 345 個轉錄因子進行轉錄因子-核酸矩陣列實驗之系統性研究。在麩胺酸刺激後之類神經細胞轉錄因子的觀察中，我們發現除了過去較為已知數個轉錄因子具有親和力(affinity)或含量的提升，尚有更多的轉錄因子也具有兩倍以上的提升量。另外在神經生長因子誘導下，意外發現多數轉錄因子在誘導分化之後呈現親和力或含量的下降。在我們的研究結果中，我們不但建立了一個類神經 PC-12 細胞分化程度相對較高的神經細胞模型，並且也確認了其NMDA受體對麩胺酸刺激的專一性能力。本研究結果為對神經細胞內分子訊息傳遞研究建構了一個可實際應用的實驗平台，為將來更進一步的細胞內分子生物模型研究打下良好的基礎。 Cloned rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) cell has been used as in vitro model of neuroscience research for a long time since it could differentiate both morphologically and biologically into neuronal cells. However, the ratio of undifferentiated to differentiated PC-12 cells can have noises that affect the outcomes of the experiments. In this study, we attempt to enhance the degree of PC-12 cell differentiation, repress the proliferative ability of undifferentiated PC-12 cells and promote the ratio of differentiated PC-12 to whole cells by changing the cell culture condition. In addition, we apply this model to screen the variation of the nuclear transcription factors (TFs). We choose the Glutamate induced NMDA receptor model in our study of neuronal activity signaling pathway and systematically studied 345 TFs by protein/DNA array. Our result indicates that except for the several known TFs, which have been shown to increase the affinity or content, there were more TFs, which were uncovered and also have good affinity. In this experiment, we established a neuron-like cell model, which has a relative higher degree of differentiation and confirmed the specificity of NMDA receptor to Glutamate.
