Treatment of these cultures with acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) or basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) increased the number of surviving tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive (TH-IR) neurons by 90-110% [corrected] at 8 d in vitro in a dose-dependent manner.;These data show that both SF/HGF and FGF-1 protect cerebellar granule neurons against excitotoxicity with similar potency in a PI3-K/Akt-dependent and MAP-kinase/CREB-independent manner.