Rearing mice from birth in an enriched environment leads to a conspicuous acceleration of visual system development appreciable at behavioral, electrophysiological and molecular level. Little is known about the possible mechanisms of action through which enriched environment affects visual system development. It has been suggested that differences in maternal behavior between enriched and non-e...

Two research areas that could benefit from a greater focus on the role of the reward pathway are maternal depression and maternal addiction. Both depression and addiction in mothers are mediated by deficiencies in the reward pathway and represent substantial risks to the health of offspring and future generations. This targeted review discusses maternal reward deficits in depressed and addicted...

Alcoholism is a devastating disease that manifests as uncontrolled drinking. Consumption of alcohol is regulated by neurochemical systems within specific neural circuits, but endogenous systems that may counteract and thus suppress the behavioral effects of ethanol intake are unknown. Here we demonstrate that BDNF plays a role in reducing the behavioral effects of ethanol, including consumption...

Some environmental stressors lead to the onset of depression via inhibiting hippocampal BDNF expression, but other environmental stressors-induced depression exhibits no change in BDNF expression. The underlying mechanisms behind the divergence remain unknown. In this study, depression-like behaviors were induced in rats by maternal deprivation (MD) and chronic unpredictable stress (CUPS). Depr...

This study tackles the interaction between gold surfaces and two peptide fragments named NGF(1-14) and BDNF(1-12), able to mimic the proliferative activity of the nerve growth factor (NGF) and the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), respectively. The physical adsorption processes on the solid surface from both single and binary peptide solutions, at physiological and acid pH, were investi...

In addition to their immune cell origin and immunological effects, cytokines are produced by neuronal and glial cells and can influence nerve growth and plasticity. Likewise, in addition to their target tissue origin and neurotrophic effects, the neurotrophins nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are secreted by immune cells and can promote immune cell growth and activity. ...

Posttraumatic hypothermia prevents cell death and promotes functional outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, little is known regarding the effect of hypothermia on dendrite degeneration and spine loss after severe TBI. In the present study, we used thy1-GFP transgenic mice to investigate the effect of hypothermia on the dendrites and spines in layer V/VI of the ipsilateral cortex...

OBJECTIVES The neuroprotective effect of lithium has been attributed to its therapeutic action. However, the role of glial cells particularly astrocytes, and the possible interactions between neurons and astrocytes in neuroprotective effects of lithium have been disregarded. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the direct effects of lithium on brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and...

Existing models of Huntington's disease posit that deficits in BDNF delivery to the striatum contribute to atrophy and motor impairment. In this issue of Neuron, Plotkin et al. (2014) show that BDNF delivery is normal but downstream signaling via TrkB and p75 is impaired, leading to corticostriatal synaptic dysfunction.