Neurotrophic factors may be used to improve the growth and repair of injured peripheral nerves. In this study we determined the effectiveness of recombinant human growth hormone on peripheral nerve injury in the Wistar rat. The ulnar nerve of the rat was sectioned and its proximal and distal ends were sutured to either end of a silastic tube, with the aim of encouraging regeneration through the...

INTRODUCTION This project aims to study the regeneration of non-repairable lesions of peripheral nerve by muscle grafts enhanced with growth factors. MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiment was carried out in two phases. The first one compared direct suture of a critical defect in the sciatic nerve of ten rats, with the interposition of autologous muscle graft, denatured by heat, in another ten. ...

Damage to peripheral nerves results in partial or complete dysfunction. After peripheral nerve injuries, a full functional recovery usually cannot be achieved despite the standard surgical repairs. Neurotrophic factors and growth factors stimulate axonal growth and support the viability of nerve cells. The objective of this study is to investigate the neurotrophic effect of exenatide (glucagon ...

The development of neuroprotective strategies to attenuate retinal ganglion cell death could lead to novel therapies for chronic optic neuropathies such as glaucoma. Intravitreal transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells slows retinal ganglion cell death in models of optic nerve injury, but the mechanism of action remains unclear. Here we characterized the neuroprotective effects of mesenchymal...

Med 178:669, 1993 7. Caux C, Massacrier C, Vanbervliet B, Dubois B, Van Kooten C, Durand I, Banchereau J: Activation of human dendritic cells through CD40 cross-linking. J Exp Med 180:1263, 1994 8. Aloe L, Bracci-Laudiero L, Bonini S, Manni L: The expanding role of nerve growth factor: From neurotrophic activity to immunologic diseases. Allergy 52:883, 1997 9. Torcia M, Bracci-Laudiero L, Lucib...

In addition to their immune cell origin and immunological effects, cytokines are produced by neuronal and glial cells and can influence nerve growth and plasticity. Likewise, in addition to their target tissue origin and neurotrophic effects, the neurotrophins nerve growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are secreted by immune cells and can promote immune cell growth and activity. ...

neurite outgrowth from dorsal root ganglion (drg) explants is a method of evaluating neurotrophic activity of growth factors. when complete medium containing collagen was supplemented with nerve growth factor (ngf) drg outgrowth was observed after 18 h. in the absence of ngf and in the presence of collagen, the drg outgrowth took place after 72 h. in wells not supplemented with collagen gel in ...

S everal ways of promoting nerve regeneration have been discovered including the use of biochemical substances such as growth factors, hormones and physical factors such as electric currents, and magnetic fields. As first reported by Levi-Montalcini, NGF was identified by promoting growth of neurites from primary cultures of chick explants by using visually scored neurite growth. Recently, the ...

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). In the normal state, microglia have a ramified shape and continuously survey the conditions of the brain. In response to various stimuli, some microglia change to an amoeboid shape. This type of microglia is motile and produces several secretory proteins, including inflammatory cytokines and neurotrophic factors, which...

Collapsin response mediator proteins (CRMPs) are intracellular proteins that mediate signals for several extracellular molecules, such as Semaphorin3A and neurotrophins. The phosphorylation of CRMP1 and CRMP2 by Cdk5 at Ser522 is involved in axonal guidance and spine development. Here, we found that the Ser522-phosphorylated CRMP1 and/or CRMP2 are enriched in the dendrites of cultured cortical ...