Background: Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is persistent pain in the affected dermatome that occurs more than three months after eruption of herpes zoster has disappeared. Vitamin D a role Schwann cell regeneration and stimulates release nerve growth factors.

Nicotinic synapses in the autonomous nervous system display use-dependent plasticity but the contribution of cellular environment, as well as the presynaptic mechanisms implicated in this process remain to be determined. To address these questions synaptic function was assayed in rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons microcultured in isolation from any other cell type and compared to tho...

The myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG) is an integral membrane glycoprotein that is located in the periaxonal membrane of myelin-forming Schwann cells. On the basis of this localization, it has been hypothesized that MAG plays a structural role in (a) forming and maintaining contact between myelinating Schwann cells and the axon (the 12-14-nm periaxonal space) and (b) maintaining the Schwann ...

Physical damage to the peripheral nerves triggers Schwann cell injury response in the distal nerves in an event termed Wallerian degeneration: the Schwann cells degrade their myelin sheaths and dedifferentiate, reverting to a phenotype that supports axon regeneration and nerve repair. The molecular mechanisms regulating Schwann cell plasticity in the PNS remain to be elucidated. Using both in v...

Schwann cell dedifferentiation and proliferation is a prerequisite to axonal regeneration in the injured peripheral nervous system. The neuregulin (NRG) family of growth and differentiation factors may play a particularly important role in this process, because these axon-associated molecules are potent Schwann cell mitogens and differentiation factors in vitro. We have examined Schwann cell DN...

The development of Schwann cells, the myelin-forming glial cells of the vertebrate peripheral nervous system, involves a neonatal phase of proliferation in which cells migrate along and segregate newly formed axons. Withdrawal from the cell cycle, around postnatal days 2-4 in rodents, initiates terminal differentiation to the myelinating state. During this time, Schwann cell number is subject t...

We describe a key role for the CD44 transmembrane glycoprotein in Schwann cell-neuron interactions. CD44 proteins have been implicated in cell adhesion and in the presentation of growth factors to high affinity receptors. We observed high CD44 expression in early rat neonatal nerves at times when Schwann cells proliferate but low expression in adult nerves, where CD44 was found in some nonmyeli...

The terminal Schwann cell processes that cover the neuromuscular junction sense neuromuscular transmission and modulate synaptic activities in normal muscles (Son et al., 1996; Robitaille, 1998). Recent researches show the terminal Schwann cell participates in the maintenance and repair of neuromuscular junctions. Reynolds and Woolf (1992) found that in response to muscle denervation, the termi...

During peripheral nervous system development, successful communication between axons and Schwann cells is required for proper function of both myelinated and nonmyelinated nerve fibers. Alternatively spliced proteins belonging to the neuregulin1 (NRG1) gene family of growth and differentiation factors are essential for Schwann cell survival and peripheral nerve development. Although recent stud...