Abstract
It was shown that brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNFs) secreted from human neuroblastoma cells can significantly improve the growth of the neurites of PC12 nerve cells. The addition of purified BDNFs elongated the neurites of PC 12 nerve cells two to three times more than the case where the addition was not made. The perfusion rate strongly affected the change of the size of human neuroblastoma cells because the cell size decreased as the perfusion rate increased. This could also influence the productivity of BDNF from the cells. It is also important to note that the BDNF production was decreased when the cell size was reduced. BDNF production rate also decreased at a fast perfusion rate in a smaller cell size. At the relatively fast perfusion rate of 18 ml/h, the ratio of apoptotic to necrotic cells dramatically decreased, which possibly caused the decrease of BDNF production. It has been proven that the secretion of BDNF from human neuroblastoma cells was a partially growth-related process by yielding 6.2$\times l0^{-8}/g$ of BDNF/cell/h of growth related parameter and $0.48{\times}l0^{-9}/g$ of BDNF/cell/h of nongrowth-related parameter in a growth kinetic model. In addition, it was also found that the perfusion rate played a very important role in controlling the cell death mechanism.