In house-made NGF with high purity, a range of size options, and ready to ship to you.
You don’t need us to tell you how important nerve growth factor (NGF) is. Forming the foundation of any research that relies on neural differentiation and survival, NGF is an essential reagent for most neuroscientists. Despite this, getting your hands on a reliable and pure source is still something lots of labs struggle with. Thankfully, we’re here to fix that.
Hot Nerve Growth Factor in Action
We all know that NGF is vital to neuronal cultures for their growth, maintenance, and survival. We can see this in action in a recent study published in Nature Communications (1). In this excellent bit of research, the team from Osaka University set out to see how tiny subcellular temperature changes affect neuronal differentiation and growth. They used neuron-like PC12 cells and primary mouse cortical neurons. They fired infrared (IR) laser irradiation at them to heat specific parts of cells and then measured the impact this had on neurite outgrowth.
As expected, PC12 cells treated with native mouse NGF (#N-100) presented a significant neurite outgrowth (Figure 1, upper panel). The researchers found that localized heating of the cell’s nucleus after exposure to our NGF made neurites grow longer, especially at a sweet spot of +3°C for 30 minutes (Figure 1, middle panel). Amazingly, just heating the nucleus alone, even without NGF, was also able to trigger neurite outgrowth, showing that temperature bumps in the nucleus are a key to kicking off neuronal growth and differentiation (Figure 1, lower panel).
Figure 1. NGF and Heat Induced Neurite Outgrowth.
Representative pictures of neurite outgrowth in PC12 cells induced by NGF alone (upper) or by local intracellular heating in the presence (middle) and absence (lower) of NGF. The scale bar represents 100 μm, 50 μm and 50 μm, respectively. Modified from Chuma et al. (2024) (1).
This study presents intracellular thermal-mediated signaling and shows how turning up the heat inside cells can boost neurite outgrowth during NGF-driven neuronal differentiation. It suggests a thermal signaling mechanism that could be tapped for neurotherapeutic strategies. By taking a much closer look at the interplay between NGF signaling and intracellular temperature changes, the researchers have set the stage for more work into how heat influences cellular differentiation and function.
Getting Good Nerve Growth Factor
It’s clear that NGF has a major part to play in a significant number of research areas. But the reality is that many vendors are unable to maintain a stable supply of NGF at a high level of purity.
However, because we make everything in-house – and have been doing so for 30 years – we have a reliable store and supply of amount of native and recombinant NGF available, and it costs less than some of the larger vendors and resellers.
While many vendors are restricted in the vial sizes available, often with long wait times of up to months, we can offer 10, 25 and 50 μg, and 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1 mg vials. Most vendors only have 10 μg or 0.1 mg size options. You’ll also find that our purity levels are often higher than other vendors.
If we compare the Native Mouse NGF 2.5S protein (#N-100) used in the paper, along with Native mouse NGF 7S protein (#N-130), with another large reagent vendor:
Native Mouse NGF 2.5S
| Alomone Labs | Vendor X | |
| Size | 10 µg (available sizes: 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 µg) | 10 µg only |
| Purity | > 95% | > 95% |
| Cost | 🙂 USD 🙂 USD for 100 µg 🙂 USD for 1000 µg | 🙁 USD |
Native Mouse NGF 7S
| Alomone Labs | Vendor X | |
| Size | 100 µg (available sizes: 10, 50, 100, 250, 500 and 1000 µg) | 100 µg only |
| Purity | > 98% | > 95% |
| Cost | 🙂 USD 🙂 USD for 10 µg 🙂 USD for 1000 µg | 🙁 USD |
At Alomone labs you can also get a more pure version in the form of Native mouse NGF 2.5S protein (99%) (#N-240), for example.
You see the same trend across other NGF variants, where you have to compromise purity, vial size or cost. Unless you come directly to us. We also maintain stock of the 7S and pro- and beta- versions, as well as the choice to have your NGF biotinylated. If you need human or recombinant versions, we have those too.
Here’s a list of the NGF option available to you:
We’ve made NGF and all of our products in-house for decades, so you can be sure of its quality and security of supply. You’ll even find specific antibodies to NGF as well. As membrane protein specialists we also offer a sizeable range of other neurotrophic factors, venom-derived ion-channel modulators, and primary antibodies.
If you need help with anything, just get in touch.
References
1. S. Chuma, K. Kiyosue, T. Akiyama, M. Kinoshita, Y. Shimazaki, S. Uchiyama, S. Sotoma, K. Okabe, Y. Harada, Implication of thermal signaling in neuronal differentiation revealed by manipulation and measurement of intracellular temperature. Nat Commun 15, 3473 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47542-8.
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