The morphological remodeling of neuronal cells influences neurogenesis and brain functions. We hypothesize that psychoactive and neurotoxic effects of cannabinoids may be mediated, at least in part, by their morphoregulatory activities. In the present study, mouse neuroblastoma N1E-115 cells were used as an in vitro model to investigate cannabinoid-induced neurite remodeling effects and to iden...

Previously we reported that Wnt3a-dependent neurite outgrowth in Ewing sarcoma family tumor cell lines was mediated by Frizzled3, Dishevelled (Dvl), and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (Endo, Y., Beauchamp, E., Woods, D., Taylor, W. G., Toretsky, J. A., Uren, A., and Rubin, J. S. (2008) Mol. Cell. Biol. 28, 2368-2379). Subsequently, we observed that Dvl2/3 phosphorylation correlated with neurite outgro...

Abstract Background As an object’s electrical passive property, the conductivity is proportional to mobility and concentration of charged carriers that reflect brain micro-structures. The measured multi- b diffusion-weighted imaging (M -DWI) data by controlling degree applied diffusion weights can quantify apparent water molecules within biological tissues. Without any external stimulation, mag...

Neurons undergo various morphologic changes during development, including neuritogenesis, neurite outgrowth, neurite branching, and neurite retraction. Many studies have examined how microtubules (MTs) are reorganized or transported within the neurites of developing neurons and have revealed that MT dynamics are regulated by MT-interacting proteins and motor proteins, in concert with actin micr...

Whole cell responses are complex because they involve many subcellular processes (SCPs) that need to function in a coordinated manner. Detailed understanding of how different SCPs function in a coordinated manner to produce an integrated whole cell response requires mathematical models that capture the dynamics of the individual SCPs as well as the interrelationship between the dynamics of mult...

of a dissertation at the University of Miami. (May 2010) Dissertation supervised by Professor Jeffrey Goldberg. No. of pages in text. (167) Mammalian central nervous system (CNS) neurons lose their ability to regenerate their axons after injury during development. For example, optic nerve injury studies in hamsters have shown that optic nerve axons injured around the time of birth retain the ab...

Growth cone motility is regulated by changes in actin dynamics. Actin depolymerizing factor (ADF) is an important regulator of actin dynamics, and extracellular signal-induced changes in ADF activity may influence growth cone motility and neurite extension. To determine this directly, we overexpressed ADF in primary neurons and analyzed neurite lengths. Recombinant adenoviruses were constructed...

During nervous system development, numerous cues within the extracellular matrix microenvironment (ECM) guide the growing neurites along specific pathways to reach their intended targets. Neurite motility is controlled by extracellular signal sensing through the growth cone at the neurite tip, including chemoattractive and repulsive cues. However, it is difficult to regenerate and restore neuri...

Expression of the neuropeptide galanin is markedly upregulated within the adult dorsal root ganglion (DRG) after peripheral nerve injury. We demonstrated previously that the rate of peripheral nerve regeneration is reduced in galanin knock-out mice, with similar deficits observed in neurite outgrowth from cultured mutant DRG neurons. Here, we show that the addition of galanin peptide significan...

BACKGROUND On the basis of experiments suggesting that Notch and Delta have a role in axonal development in Drosophila neurons, we studied the ability of components of the Notch signaling pathway to modulate neurite formation in mammalian neuroblastoma cells in vitro. RESULTS We observed that N2a neuroblastoma cells expressing an activated form of Notch, Notch1(IC), produced shorter neurites ...