Chemico-Biological Interactions 115 (1998) 167 – 174 Growth inhibitory factor and zinc affect neural cell cultures in a tissue specific manner Arend Bruinink a, *, Peter Faller b , Corinne Sidler a , Ralf Bogumil b , Milan Vasa ´k b a Institute of Toxicology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Schorenstrasse 16, CH-8603, Schwerzenbach, Switzerland b Biochemisches Institut der Uniersita ¨t Zu ¨rich Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057, Zu ¨rich, Switzerland Received 3 November 1997; received in revised form 8 June 1998; accepted 15 June 1998 Abstract Deficiency of neuronal growth inhibitory factor (GIF) and abnormalities in zinc homeostasis have been suggested to play a role in the neuropathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. We report here that embryonic chick cerebral cell cultures zinc and copper containing GIF in the presence of marmoset hippocampal extract reduces significantly and concentration dependently mitochondrial succinate dehydrogenase activity (MTT) and cell mass. In contrast, no indications could be found that GIF affected neural retina cell cultures. Our results suggest that the observed effects of GIF are not elicited by zinc. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: GIF; Metallothionein; Alzheimer’s disease; Zinc; Brain; Neural retina culture * Corresponding author. Present address: Biocompatible Materials Science and Engineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Wagistrasse 23, CH-Schlieren, Switzerland. Tel.: +41 1 6336104; fax: +41 1 6331120; e-mail: bruinink@biocomp.mat.ethz.ch 0009-2797/98/$ - see front matter © 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII S0009-2797(98)00062-3