Intracisternal Administration of Anti-c-Met Antibody Decreases Reelin and Disabled 1 Expression in the Cerebral Cortex; an in vivo Study

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor, c-Met, are widely expressed in the developing brain. HGF enhances cell proliferation and cell growth, stimulates cell migration and motility. Expression of mRNA for HGF has been seen in the rat brain. Neurons and glia produced in the neuroepithelium migrate along radial glial fibers into the cortical plate. Reelin, a glycoprotein which is produced by Cajal-Retzius (CR) cells in the marginal zone directs neuronal migration indirectly via the radial glial cells. It has been demonstrated that Disabled 1 (Dab1) functions downstream of reelin in a tyrosin kinase signal transduction pathway that controls appropriate cell positioning in the developing brain. In this study, intracisternal administration of anti-c-Met antibody on reelin and Dab1 expression in the cerebral cortex has been studied. Using Western blotting, it was shown that the expression of reelin and Dab1 is decreased in response to infusion of antibody when compared to control group. It is concluded that c-Met is essential for reelin and Dab1 expression in the cerebral cortex of the newborn mouse. Moreover, this method may be applied to the other factors and different central nervous system (CNS) regions, allowing identification of molecules involved in neural cell migration.