Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in synaptic plasticity, neuronal differentiation and survival of neurons. Observations of decreased serum BDNF levels in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders have highlighted the potential of BDNF as a biomarker, but so far there have been no studies directly comparing blood BDNF levels to brain BDNF levels in different species. We examin...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been shown to be necessary and sufficient for post-stroke recovery in rodents. From these observations, we and others have hypothesized that a common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the pro-domain of bdnf that leads to a methionine (Met) substitution for valine (Val) at codon 66 (Val66Met) will affect stroke outcome. Here we investigate the e...

This study aims to understand the mechanisms of dendritic targeting of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) mRNAs. We show that brief depolarizations are sufficient to induce accumulation of BDNF and TrkB mRNAs in dendrites of hippocampal neurons. Endogenous BDNF, secreted during the KCl stimulation, contributes significantly to the dendritic accumulation of BDN...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) exerts multiple biological functions in the CNS. Although BDNF can control transcription and protein synthesis, it still remains open to question whether BDNF regulates lipid biosynthesis. Here we show that BDNF elicits cholesterol biosynthesis in cultured cortical and hippocampal neurons. Importantly, BDNF elicited cholesterol synthesis in neurons, but ...

After peripheral nerve injury, neurotrophins play a key role in the regeneration of damaged axons that can be augmented by exercise, although the distinct roles played by neurons and Schwann cells are unclear. In this study, we evaluated the requirement for the neurotrophin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), in neurons and Schwann cells for the regeneration of peripheral axons after inj...

introduction: it has shown that listening to mozart music can potentiate spatial tasks in human and reduce seizure attacks in epileptic patients. a few studies have reported the effects of prenatal plus postpartum exposure of mice to the mozart music on brain-drived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) in the hippocampus. here we investigated the effect of postpartum exposure to the mozart music on bdnf ...

OBJECTIVE The subgenual anterior cingulate cortex is implicated in the pathology and treatment response of major depressive disorder. Low levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and reduced markers for GABA function, including in the amygdala, are reported in major depression, but their contribution to subgenual anterior cingulate cortex dysfunction is not known. METHOD Using polym...

Growing axons during development are guided to their targets by the activity of their growth cones. Growth cones integrate positive and negative guidance cues in deciding the direction in which to extend. We demonstrated previously that treatment of embryonic retinal ganglion cells with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protects their growth cones from collapse induced by nitric oxide (N...