Major depression is associated with reduced volumes in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, whereas antidepressant treatments promote several forms of neuronal plasticity, including neurogenesis, synaptogenesis and neuronal maturation, in the hippocampus. Several neurotrophic factors are associated with depression or antidepressant action. Stress suppresses brain-derived neurotrophic factor (...

A primary cause of deafness is damage of receptor cells in the inner ear. Clinically, it has been demonstrated that effective functionality can be provided by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve, thus bypassing damaged receptor cells. However, subsequent to sensory cell loss there is a secondary degeneration of the afferent nerve fibers, resulting in reduced effectiveness of such cochl...

Recent evidence has demonstrated that endothelial-specific growth factors affect the development of apparently unrelated organs and cells. Expanding this evidence further, new findings in this issue of the JCI show that neurotrophic factors can affect neovascularization. Neurotrophic factors achieve proangiogenic effects not only by directly affecting endothelial cells, but also by recruiting h...

Ya zış ma Ad re si / Add ress rep rint re qu ests to: Feyza Arıcıoğlu Marmara Üniversitesi Eczacılık Fakültesi, Farmakoloji Anabilim Dalı ve Psikofarmakoloji Araştırma Birimi, Haydarpaşa, 34668, İstanbul-Türkiye Telefon / Phone: +90-216-418-9573 Faks / Fax: +90-216-345-2952 Elektronik posta adresi / E-mail address: [email protected] Ka bul ta ri hi / Da te of ac cep tan ce: 28 Mayıs 201...

Neurotrophic factors (NF) are involved in pain regulation and a few studies have suggested that they may play a pathophysiological role in primary headaches. The aim of this study was to investigate NF levels in patients with tension type headache (TTH). We carried out a cross sectional study including 48 TTH patients and 48 age and gender matched controls. Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventori...

A clear limitation of treating diseases of the central nervous system arises from the loss of regenerative potential of the brain at a very early age. Improper development of neural circuits or injury of neurons appears to be permanently fixed in the adult, with seemingly little hope of restorative therapy. This is most clearly true of the spectrum of neurologic diseases, such as neurodegenerat...

Neurotrophic growth factors, including nerve growth factor (NGF) and glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), have well-established roles in promoting the innervation of target tissues, yet little is known about how the temporal and organ-specific expression of these factors is regulated. A new study reveals that NGF is a direct target of the well-characterized peptide factor endothelin-1 (ET-...

Depression is an illness of unknown origin and involves the dysregulation of many physiological processes disturbed in this disease. It has been postulated that the pathomechanism of depression is complex, and apart from changes in neurotransmitters, a dysregulation of the immune and endocrine systems also plays an important role in the development of this disorder. Recent studies indicate that...