Spontaneous axonal regeneration of neurons does not occur after spinal cord injury because of inhibition by myelin and other inhibitory factors. Studies have demonstrated that blocking the Rho/Rho-kinase (ROCK) pathway can promote neurite outgrowth in spinal cord injury models. In the present study, we investigated neurite outgrowth and neuronal differentiation in neural stem cells from the mou...

Neurite outgrowth is an important preceding step for the development of nerve systems. Given that the in vivo environments of neurons consist of numerous hierarchical micro/nanotopographies, there have been many efforts to investigate the relationship between neuronal behaviors and surface topography. The acceleration of neurite outgrowth was recently reported on surfaces with a periodic nanoto...

Neurons form networks by growing out neurites that synaptically connect to other neurons. During this process, neurites develop complex branched trees. Interestingly, the outgrowth of neurite branches is often accompanied by the simultaneous withdrawal of other branches belonging to the same tree. This apparent competitive outgrowth between branches of the same neuron is relevant for the format...

Previously we determined that Dishevelled-2/3 (Dvl) mediate Wnt-3a-dependent neurite outgrowth in Ewing sarcoma family tumor cells. Here we report that neurite extension was associated with Dvl phosphorylation and that both were inhibited by the casein kinase 1 (CK1) δ/ε inhibitor IC261. Small interfering RNAs targeting either CK1δ or CK1ε decreased Dvl phosphorylation, but only knockdown of CK...

The enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) terminates synaptic transmission at cholinergic synapses by hydrolyzing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, but can also exert 'non-classical', morpho-regulatory effects on developing neurons such as stimulation of neurite outgrowth. Here, we investigated the role of AChE binding to laminin-1 on the regulation of neurite outgrowth by using cell culture, im...

Previous studies suggest that during nerve regeneration apoE acts as a lipid transport protein that assists in the rapid initial extension of axons and then in their myelination. To determine whether apoE and/or apoE-containing lipoproteins can modulate axon growth, we assessed their effect on the out-growth of neurites from neurons in mixed cultures of fetal rabbit dorsal root ganglion cells i...

During nervous system development neurons extend axons which navigate along precise pathways to innervate specific target tissues, often over long distances. The distal tip of the axon, the growth cone, plays a major role in determining the direction and distance of axonal outgrowth. A variety of outgrowth-promoting or -inhibitory soluble and matrixor cell-associated molecules encountered by th...

Neurite outgrowth from isolated, identified molluscan (Helisoma trivolvis) neurons in culture can be suppressed by neurotransmitters and electrical activity, both of which increase intraneuronal Ca2+ levels (Haydon et al., 1984; Cohan et al., 1986, 1987). We explored the possibility of a causal relationship between Ca2+ influx from the cell exterior and neurite outgrowth using a spectrum of pha...

Neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) contributes to axon growth and guidance during development and learning and memory in adulthood. Although the Ig domains mediate homophilic binding, outgrowth activity localizes to two membrane proximal fibronectin-like domains. The first of these contains a site identified as a potential FGF receptor (FGFR) activation motif (FRM) important for NCAM stimulat...

Targets in limb regions of the chick embryo are further removed from the dorsal root ganglia that innervate them compared with thoracic ganglion-to-target distances. It has been inferred that axons grow into the limb regions two to three times faster than into nonlimb regions. We tested whether the differences were due to intrinsic properties of the neurons located at different segmental levels...