Ciliary neurotrophic factor was discovered based on its ability to support the survival of ciliary neurons, and is now known to act on a variety of neuronal and glial populations. Two distant relatives of ciliary neurotrophic factor, leukemia inhibitory factor and oncostatin M, mimic ciliary neurotrophic factor with respect to its actions on cells of the nervous system. In contrast to ciliary n...

REGULATION OF SENSORY NEURONE SURVIVAL BY NEUROTROPHIC FACTORS Neuronal death and the role of neurotrophic factors Site of neurotrophic factor synthesis Regulation of neurotrophic factor levels in the target field Stage of sensory neurone dependence on neurotrophic factors Specificity of neurotrophic factors for sensory neurones neurotrophic factors from the periphery neurotrophic factors from ...

Axonal target-derived BMP and neurotrophin signaling are both known to regulate neuronal gene expression, differentiation, and axon growth. In this issue of Neuron, Ji and Jaffrey (2012) discovered that BMP-signaling endosomes depend on BDNF-induced axonal synthesis of SMADs to retrogradely regulate transcription in developing trigeminal neurons, providing a mechanism of integrating the two tar...

During development, newly born neurons migrate away from their initial birth sites to their final positions in the mature brain. The neurotrophin BDNF has been shown to regulate the migration of granule cells in the cerebellum. The cellular mechanisms that mediate this chemotactic response have not been resolved. In this issue of Neuron, Zhou et al. show that vesicle trafficking is critical for...

Objective(s): Neurotrophic factors secreting cells (NTS-SCs) may be a superior cell source for cell-based therapy in neurodegenerative diseases. NTS-SCs are able to secrete some neurotrophic Such as nerve growth factor and glia-derived neurotrophic factor. Our primary aim was to assess transplantation of neurotrophic factor secreting cells derived from human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) ...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor is one of the most potent motoneuron survival factors yet identified. Although retrograde transport of trophic factors to the cell body is thought to be an important process in motoneuron survival, the transport pathways that lead to interaction of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor with its receptors is not known. We have used a double ligat...

Conserved dopamine neurotrophic factor protects and rescues dopaminergic neurodegeneration induced by 6-hydroxydopamine in vivo, but its potential value in treating Parkinson's disease remains controversial. Here, we used the proteasome inhibitors lactacystin and MG132 to induce neurodegeneration of PC12 cells. Afterwards, conserved dopamine neurotrophic factor was administrated as a therapeuti...

BACKGROUND Agomelatine modulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression via its interaction with melatonergic and serotonergic receptors and has shown promising results in terms of brain-derived neurotrophic factor increase in animal models. METHODS Twenty-seven patients were started on agomelatine (25mg/d). Venous blood was collected and brain-derived neurotrophic factor serum levels w...