A significant reduction of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has been identified in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Thus, clarification of the mechanism of GDNF production, and modulating brain GDNF levels could be a novel therapeutic approach. A previous study demonstrated that antidepressant amitriptyline-induced GDNF production was si...

Objective(s)Progesterone is a steroid hormone whose biology has been greatly studied within the confines of reproductive function. In recent years, the neuroprotective effects of progesterone have attracted growing interest. Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), is a neurotrophic factor which plays a crucial role in the development and maintenance of distinct sets of central and p...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) promotes the survival or differentiation of several types of neurons. This study examines GDNF-induced signal transduction and biological effects in cultured striatal neurons. Results show that GDNF addition to striatal cultures transiently increased the protein levels of phosphorylated p42/p44, but did not change the levels of phosphorylated A...

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a ligand that activates, through co-receptor GDNF family receptor alpha-1 (GFRα1) and receptor tyrosine kinase "RET", several signaling pathways crucial in the development and sustainment of multiple neuronal populations. We decided to study whether non-mammalian orthologs of these three proteins have conserved their function: can they activ...

The present study investigates whether transplantation of NSCs treated with T3 alone (T3/NSCs), or in conjunction with GDNF gene (GDNF-T3/NSCs), provides a better therapeutic effect than NSCs for chronic EAE. EAE rats were, respectively, injected with NSCs, T3/NSCs, GDNF-T3/NSCs, and saline at 10 days and sacrificed at 60 days after EAE immunization. The three cell grafted groups showed a signi...

During the past decade, 3ʹ untranslated regions (3ʹUTRs) of mRNAs continue to emerge as important sites for gene regulation due to the binding of microRNAs (miRs), RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) and possibly other trans-acting factors. Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) play important roles inside and outside the central nervous system (...

PURPOSE To investigate the role of glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) on proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of different retinal cell types--in particular, photoreceptor cells. METHODS Reaggregated histotypic spheres, derived from retinal cells of the E6 chicken embryo were used. Under rotation, so-called rosetted spheroids arose by aggregation of dissociated retina...

A double-blinded study was conducted to evaluate the dose response of hemiparkinsonian rhesus monkeys to intracerebroventricular (ICV) injections of recombinant methionine human glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). Thirty rhesus monkeys with stable hemiparkinsonian features were divided into six treatment groups (vehicle, 10, 30, 100, 300 and 1000 microg GDNF; n = 5/group). Each ...

Damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve often causes hoarseness, dyspnea, dysphagia, and sometimes asphyxia due to vocal cord paralysis which result in a reduction of quality of life. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) play critical roles in peripheral nerve regeneration. However, methods for efficiently delivering these molecules are...