Constant exposure to bright light induces photoreceptor degeneration and at the same time upregulates the expression of several neurotrophic factors in the retina. At issue is whether the induced neurotrophic factors protect photoreceptors. We used a preconditioning paradigm to show that animals preconditioned with bright light became resistant to subsequent light damage. The preconditioning co...

Derived from Rhodiola rosea L., which is a popular plant in Eastern Europe and Asia, salidroside has pharmacological properties including antiviral, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and antioxidative effects. Recent studies show that salidroside has neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects. However, the effect of salidroside on Schwann cells (SCs) and the underlying mechanisms of the...

Neurotrophins play a principal role in neuronal survival and differentiation during development, but also in the maintenance of appropriate adult neuronal circuits and phenotypes. In the oculomotor system, we have demonstrated that neurotrophins are key regulators of developing and adult neuronal properties, but with peculiarities depending on each neurotrophin. For instance, the administration...

Toxoplasmic retinochoroiditis (TR) is the most common identifiable cause of posterior uveitis in Brazil. Response to treatment and clinical presentation may vary significantly. We assessed serum levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF), neurotrophin (NT)-3, and NT-4/5 in patients with active TR, before and ...

The proteins of the mammalian neurotrophin family (nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and neurotrophin-4/5 (NT-4/5)) were originally identified as neuronal survival factors. During the last decade, evidence has accumulated implicating them (especially BDNF) in addition in the regulation of synaptic transmission and synaptogenesis in the CN...

objective: to assess the effect of heparin binding neurotrophic factor (hbnf) on sciatic nerve regeneration in animal model of rat. methods: seventy-five male wistar rats were divided into five experimental groups randomly (each group containing 15 animals): sham operation group (sham), autograft group (auto), transected control (tc), chitosan conduit (chit) and heparin binding neurotrophic fac...

Laryngeal palsy often results from recurrent laryngeal or vagal nerve injury during oncologic surgery of the head and neck. The aim of this study was to describe the characters of spontaneous reinnervation in rats following recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) crush injury. Twenty-five male Sprague-Dawley rats each were subjected to a 5-mmlong crush injury to the right recurrent laryngeal nerve. Voc...

Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR is a highly sensitive technology that allows high throughput quantification of gene expression. Application of this technique to the inner ear is potentially very important, but is not straightforward because tissue harvesting can be challenging, RNA yield from individual inner ears is low, and cDNA synthesis from scant RNA can be inefficient. To...

Neural stem cells (NSCs) offer the potential to replace lost tissue after nervous system injury. This study investigated whether grafts of NSCs (mouse clone C17.2) could also specifically support host axonal regeneration after spinal cord injury and sought to identify mechanisms underlying such growth. In vitro, prior to grafting, C17.2 NSCs were found for the first time to naturally constituti...

During development of the nervous system an excess number of neural progenitor cells are generated and approximately half of these cells are eliminated by programmed cell death (PCD) or apoptosis (Farinelli and Greene, 1996; Jacobson et al., 1997; Oppenheim, 1991; Raff, 1992; Raff et al., 1993). The apoptosis and elimination of the excess number of precursor cells enable the proper synaptic int...