Methods. Retinal ischemia was induced in Lewis albino rats by increasing intraocular pressure to 160 mm Hg for 90 minutes. The agents or buffer controls were injected intravitreally at different times, either before or after the ischemic insult, and the postischemic survival time was either 7 or 14 days. The degree of retinal damage was assessed from plastic-embedded sections by cytologic analy...

The principal projection neurons of the striatum are critically dependent on an afferent supply of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) for neurotrophic support. These neurons express TrkB, the cognate receptor for BDNF, which activates signaling pathways associated with neuronal survival and phenotypic maintenance. Impairment of the BDNF-TrkB pathway is suspected to underlie the early dysf...

Background Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related characterized by synaptic dysfunction, brain inflammation, and neurodegeneration against which there no effective cure available. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) a key molecule involved in the learning memory process, with crucial role plasticity neuronal survival. Several findings support that reduced BDNF expression human associat...

Urothelium-specific overexpression of nerve growth factor (NGF) in the urinary bladder of transgenic mice stimulates neuronal sprouting in the urinary bladder, produces increased voiding frequency, and results in increased referred somatic hypersensitivity. Additional NGF-mediated pleiotropic changes might contribute to the increased voiding frequency and pelvic hypersensitivity observed in the...

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1. Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Medicine of Porto, University of Porto, Portugal; IBMCInstituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Portugal., 2. Molecular Neurobiology Unit, University of Bristol, CSSB, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Bristol, UK, 3. Department of Urology, Hospital de S. João, Porto, Portugal; IBMCInstituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Unive...

Neuroprogenitor cells (NPCs) isolated from the human fetal brain were expanded under proliferative conditions in the presence of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) to provide an abundant supply of cells. NPCs were differentiated in the presence of a new combination of nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dibutyryl cAMP (DBC) and reti...

This study was conducted to investigate effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor on the neurite growth and the survival rate of antennal lobe neurons in vitro, and secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor-like neuropeptide from brain into hemolymph in the silk moth, Bombyx mori. In primary culture of antennal lobe neurons with brain-derived neurotrophic factor, it promoted both a neur...

A variety of cytokines induce the tyrosine phosphorylation of signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs). Activation of the same STAT proteins by distinct cytokines and activation of different STAT proteins by each cytokine are thought to contribute to redundancy and pleiotropy of cytokine actions respectively. STAT3 is rapidly tyrosine phosphorylated in response to IL-6, ciliar...