Mutations in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene are associated with human obesity, and BDNF has potent inhibitory effects on eating and body weight. Little is known about the effects of energy balance manipulations on BDNF protein in the hypothalamus, though this brain region is critical for regulation of feeding and body weight and has high levels of BDNF. Here we investigated t...

In this study, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) heterozygous knock-outs were tested on fear conditioning, and their wild-type littermates were used as controls. Results showed that BDNF(+/-) mice are impaired in contextual learning, whereas tone learning remains intact. Because BDNF is involved in synaptic transmission and contextual learning is hippocampal dependent, we hypothesized th...

Most growth factors are initially synthesized as precursors then cleaved into bioactive mature domains and pro-domains, but the biological roles of pro-domains are poorly understood. In the present study, we investigated the pro-domain (or pro-peptide) of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes neuronal survival, differentiation and synaptic plasticity. The BDNF pro-peptide is ...

In this report, we have tested the hypothesis that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is an anterograde neurotrophic factor in the CNS and have focused on central noradrenergic neurons that synthesize BDNF. Double-label immunocytochemistry for BDNF and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), a marker for noradrenergic neurons, demonstrated that BDNF is partially localized to noradrenergic nerve ...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in neuronal survival and growth and participates in neuronal plasticity. BDNF binds to its high affinity receptor TrkB and activates signal transduction cascades crucial for the production of cyclic adenosine mono phosphate (cAMP)-response element binding protein (CREB), which contributes to neurotrophin-mediated survival in the c...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) has been implicated in several neurological disorders including Rett syndrome (RTT), an X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder caused by loss-of-function mutations in the transcriptional modulator methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2). The human BDNF gene has a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-a methionine (met) substitution for valine (val) at codon 66...

Background: Patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) often display persistent cognitive dysfunction despite effective treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a key mediator of memory and cognition, but its regulation in OSAS and during CPAP treatment is unknown. Methods: Serum and plasma BDNF concentrations, BDNF secre...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates multiple biological processes ranging from central nervous system development and function to neuroinflammation and myogenic differentiation and repair. While coordination of BDNF levels is central in determining the biological outcome, mechanisms involved in controlling BDNF levels are not fully understood. Here we find that both short (BDNF-S...

Long-term memory formation requires selective changes in gene expression. Here, we determined the contribution of chromatin remodeling to learning-induced changes in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) gene expression in the adult hippocampus. Contextual fear learning induced differential regulation of exon-specific bdnf mRNAs (I, IV, VI, IX) that was associated with changes in bdnf DNA me...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is transported anterogradely in neurons of the CNS and can be released by activity-dependent mechanisms to regulate synaptic plasticity. However, few neural networks have been identified in which the production, transport, and effects of BDNF on postsynaptic neurons can be analyzed in detail. In this study, we have identified such a network. BDNF has bee...