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...

[Purpose] The aim of the present study was to investigate effects of skilled reach training with affected forelimb and treadmill exercise on the expression of neurotrophic factor following ischemia-induced brain injury in rats. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 3 groups randomly: namely, the control sacrified 2 weeks after surgery, skilled reach training w...

The physiology of brain-derived neurotrophic factor signaling in enkephalinergic striatopallidal neurons is poorly understood. Changes in cortical Bdnf expression levels, and/or impairment in brain-derived neurotrophic factor anterograde transport induced by mutant huntingtin (mHdh) are believed to cause striatopallidal neuron vulnerability in early-stage Huntington's disease. Although several ...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system (CNS) predominantly occurring in older adults, and is particularly common after the age of 60. The primary pathologic characteristics of PD are neuronal degeneration and cell death of dopaminergic (DA-ergic) neurons, leading to a decrease in the dopamine (DA) level in the striatum. Originally extracted and purified...

This study determined the consequences of dopamine denervation of the striatum on synaptic plasticity and prevention of these changes with gene therapy using an adeno-associated viral vector (AAV) expressing glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). C57BL6/J mice were injected with the neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine(MPTP); long-term depression (LTD) or potenti...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a potent survival factor for dopaminergic neurons of the nigrostriatal pathway that degenerate in Parkinson’s disease (PD). In animal models of PD, GDNF delivery has been shown to both protect dopaminergic neurons against toxin-induced injury and to rescue damaged neurons, promoting recovery of the motor deficit. GDNF may act both as a targe...

The cerebral cortex is organized into six cell layers, each of which contains neurons with similar morphology, functions, gene-expression profiles, and projection patterns. These layer-specific neuronal phenotypes are sequentially generated from common cortical progenitor cells in the ventricular zone of dorsal telencephalon. Although recent investigations have clarified important roles of intr...