Axotomized septal cholinergic neurons rescued by nerve growth factor or neurotrophin-4/5 fail to express the inducible transcription factor c-Jun
Abstract
The inducible transcription factor c-Jun increases in neurons in response to axotomy by unknown mechanisms, and it has been postulated that c-Jun may regulate genes involved in promoting either degeneration or regeneration of axotomized neurons. In this report, we investigated the effect of daily or twice daily intraventricular administration of the neurotrophins nerve growth factor or neurotrophin-4/5 on the decrease in choline acetyltransferase expression and the increase in c-Jun expression in rat medial septum/diagonal band neurons three, seven and 14 days following unilateral, complete, fornix fimbria lesion. We also examined whether medial septum/diagonal band neurons might die by apoptosis within two weeks of fornix fimbria lesion using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP biotin nick end labelling. Our results show that both nerve growth factor and neurotrophin-4/5 maintain the phenotype of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons following axotomy. Furthermore, using double-labelling immunofluorescence, we found that while c-Jun was expressed in cholinergic neurons in control-treated rats seven days following fornix fimbria lesion, cholinergic neurons rescued by either nerve growth factor or neurotrophin-4/5 ...Continue Reading
References
Neurotrophin-4/5 promotes survival and differentiation of rat striatal neurons developing in culture
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