Journal ArticleDOI
The nerve growth factor 35 years later
TLDR
The field of experimental embryology, which had been enthusiastically acclaimed in the mid-thirties, suffered from a sharp decrease in the enthusiasm that had inflamed the pioneers in this field, ever since R. G. Harrison delivered his celebrated lecture at the Royal Society in London in 1935.Abstract:
"Embryogenesis is in some way a model system. It has always been distinguished by the exactitude even punctitio, of its anatomical descriptions. An experiment by one of the great masters of embryology could be made the text of a discourse on scientific method. But something is wrong, or has been wrong. There is no theory of development in the sense in which Mendelism is a theory that accounts for the results of breeding experiments. There has therefore been little sense of progression or timeliness about embryological research. Of many papers delivered at embryological meetings, however good they may be in themselves . . . one too often feels that they might have been delivered five years beforehand without making anyone much the wiser, or deferred for five years without making anyone conscious of a great loss" (1). This feeling of frustration so incisively conveyed by these considerations by P. Medawar, pervaded, in the forties, the field of experimental embryology which had been enthusiastically acclaimed in the mid-thirties, when the upper lip of the amphibian blastopore brought this area of research to the forefront of the biological stage. The side branch of experimental neuroembryology, which had stemmed out from the common tree and was entirely devoted to the study of the tropic interrelations between neuronal cell populations and between these and the innervated organs and tissues, was then in its initial vigorous growth phase. It in turn suffered from a sharp decrease in the enthusiasm that had inflamed the pioneers in this field, ever since R. G. Harrison delivered his celebrated lecture on this topic at the Royal Society in London in 1935 (2). Although the alternate "wax and wane" cycles are the rule rather than the exception in all fields of human endeavor, in that of biological sciences the "wane" is all too often indicative of a justified loss of faith in the rational and methodical approach that had at first raised so much hope. A brief account of the state-of-the-art of experimental neuroembryology in theread more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Comparison of the Effects of the Neurotrophins on the Morphological Structure of Dopaminergic Neurons in Cultures of Rat Substantia Nigra
Lorenz Studer,Christian Spenger,Rolf W. Seiler,C. Anthony Altar,Ronald M. Lindsay,Carolyn Hyman +5 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that BDNF, NT‐3 and NT‐4/5 influence the morphological differentiation of dopaminergic neurons in vitro, suggesting they may play a role in the structural development and plasticity of these neurons in the mesencephalon.
Journal ArticleDOI
Expression of NGF in sympathetic neurons leads to excessive axon outgrowth from ganglia but decreased terminal innervation within tissues
TL;DR: The effects of nerve growth factor on sympathetic axon growth were investigated by generating transgenic mice in which the beta subunit of NGF was expressed in sympathetic neurons using the human dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) promoter.
Journal ArticleDOI
Dorsal root ganglion neurons require functional neurotrophin receptors for survival during development
TL;DR: These results generalize concepts of dependence on target-derived factors based on extensive work with the prototypical neurotrophin, nerve growth factor, and provide evidence for more complex developmental mechanisms including dependence on locally synthesized neurotrophins at early developmental stages and plasticity of neurotroph in receptor expression.
Book ChapterDOI
Role of NGF and neurogenic inflammation in the pathogenesis of psoriasis
TL;DR: In immunohistochemical studies, it is found that keratinocytes in lesional and nonlesional psoriatic tissue express high levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) and that there is a marked upregulation of NGF receptors, p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) and tyrosine kinase A (TrkA) in the terminal cutaneous nerves of psoriasis lesions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rapid increase of BDNF mRNA levels in cortical neurons following spreading depression: regulation by glutamatergic mechanisms independent of seizure activity
Zaal Kokaia,Gunilla Gidö,Tomas Ringstedt,Johan Bengzon,Merab Kokaia,Bo K. Siesjö,H. Persson,Olle Lindvall +7 more
TL;DR: Evidence is provided that mild brain insults associated with glutamate release and elevated intracellular calcium, such as spreading depression, also in the absence of seizure activity can lead to activation of the BDNF gene in cortical neurons.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Establishment of a noradrenergic clonal line of rat adrenal pheochromocytoma cells which respond to nerve growth factor.
TL;DR: A single cell clonal line which responds reversibly to nerve growth factor (NGF) has been established from a transplantable rat adrenal pheochromocytoma and should be a useful model system for neurobiological and neurochemical studies.
Journal ArticleDOI
Close similarity of epidermal growth factor receptor and v- erb-B oncogene protein sequences
Julian Downward,Yosef Yarden,E. Mayes,G. Scrace,Nick Totty,P. Stockwell,Axel Ullrich,Joseph Schlessinger,Mike Waterfield +8 more
TL;DR: Six peptides derived from the human epidermal growth factor receptor very closely matches a part of the deduced sequence of the v-erb-B transforming protein of avian erythroblastosis virus (AEV).
Journal ArticleDOI
The c-fms proto-oncogene product is related to the receptor for the mononuclear phagocyte growth factor, CSF 1
Charles J. Sherr,Carl W. Rettenmier,Rosalba Sacca,Martine F. Roussel,A. Thomas Look,E. Richard Stanley +5 more
TL;DR: The feline c-fms proto-oncogene product and the CSF-1 receptor are related, and possibly identical, molecules.
Journal ArticleDOI
Simian sarcoma virus onc gene, v-sis, is derived from the gene (or genes) encoding a platelet-derived growth factor
Russell F. Doolittle,Michael W. Hunkapiller,Leroy Hood,Sushilkumar G. Devare,Keith C. Robbins,Stuart A. Aaronson,Harry N. Antoniades +6 more
TL;DR: The demonstrating of extensive sequence similarity between the transforming protein derived from the simian sarcoma virus onc gene, v-sis, and a human platelet-derived growth factor shows that this protein could be a factor active transiently during normal cell growth.