Neurotrophic factors are secreted proteins responsible for migration, growth and survival of neurons during development, and for maintenance and plasticity of adult neurons. Here we present a novel secreted protein named Cometin which together with Meteorin defines a new evolutionary conserved protein family. During early mouse development, Cometin is found exclusively in the floor plate and fr...

Chronic pain associated with injury or disease can result from dysfunction of sensory afferents whereby the threshold for activation of pain-sensing neurons (nociceptors) is lowered. Neurotrophic factors control nociceptor development and survival, but also induce sensitization through activation of their cognate receptors, attributable, in part, to the modulation of ion channel function. Therm...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) promotes PNS development and kidney morphogenesis via a receptor complex consisting of the glycerophosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored, ligand binding receptor GDNF family receptor α1 (GFRα1) and the receptor tyrosine kinase Ret. Although Ret signal transduction in vitro is augmented by translocation into lipid rafts via GFRα1, the existence and...

BACKGROUND Dysregulation in the prefrontal cortex-nucleus accumbens pathway has been implicated in cocaine addiction. We have previously demonstrated that one intra-dorsomedial prefrontal cortex brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) infusion immediately following the last cocaine self-administration session caused a long-lasting inhibition of cocaine-seeking and normalized the cocaine-induce...

BACKGROUND Sensory deprivation induces dramatic morphological and neurochemical changes in the olfactory bulb (OB) that are largely restricted to glomerular and granule layer interneurons. Mitral cells, pyramidal-like neurons, are resistant to sensory-deprivation-induced changes and are associated with the precursor to brain-derived neurotrophic factor (proBDNF); here, we investigate its unknow...

Oncostatin M (OSM) is a member of a family of cytokines that includes ciliary neurotrophic factor, interleukin-6, interleukin-11, cardiotrophin-1, and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). The receptors for these cytokines consist of a common signaling subunit, gp130, to which other subunits are added to modify ligand specificity. We report here the isolation and characterization of a cDNA encoding...

Introduction: A combinatorial approach involving scaffolds, neurotrophic growth factors, and cells is believed to be the ideal therapy for effectively repairing spinal cord injury (SCI). However, methods to deliver growth factors and cells to injured sites efficiently have not yet been well established. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is one of the neurotrophic growth factors to neural regenerat...

PBS: Phosphate Buffered Saline; CSPG: Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans; ChABC: Chondroitinase ABC; SUR1–TRPM4 : Sulfonylurea Receptor 1–Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 4, PTEN: Phosphate and Tensin Homolog; mTOR: Mammalian Target of Rapamycin; SOCS3: Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling 3; BDNF: Brain -Derived Neurotrophic Factor; LINGO-1: Leucine Rich Repeat and Ig Domain Containing 1; Tr...

We describe the cloning of the mouse glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) gene and its expression during embryogenesis. GDNF is a distant member of the superfamily of TGF-beta related genes that was originally identified on the basis of its striking neurotrophic activity. GDNF is expressed in a highly dynamic pattern in the anterior neuroectoderm during early stages of neurogenesi...