Neurons and glia of the cerebral cortex are thought to arise from a common, multipotent progenitor cell that is instructed toward alternate fates by extracellular cues. How do these cells behave when confronted with conflicting cues? We show here that nestin-positive neuroepithelial (NE) cells from embryonic day 14 rat cortex coexpress surface receptor proteins for ciliary neurotrophic factor (...

The regional and subcellular localization in the central nervous system (CNS) of postnatal day 5, day 15, and adult rats of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) mRNA was examined by in situ hybridization with biotinylated riboprobes. Probe specificity was determined by Northern blot analysis of poly(A)+ RNA extracted from adult rat brain using digoxigenin labeled riboprobes and chemiluminescent d...

~~: Abstract. Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) influences the levels of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in cultures of dissociated sYmpathetic neurons from newborn rats. In the presence of CNTF both the total and specific activity of ChAT was increased 7 d after culture by 15and 18-fold, respectively, as compared to cultures kept in the absence of CNTF. Between ...

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) signals via a tripartite receptor complex consisting of the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored CNTF receptor (CNTF-R), the leukaemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIF-R) and the interleukin-6 (IL-6) signal transducer gp130. We have recently reported that gp130 is endogenously expressed in the polarised epithelial model cell line Madin-Darby canine kidn...

OBJECTIVES The functionality of cochlear implants (CI) depends, among others, on the number and excitability of surviving spiral ganglion neurons (SGN). The spatial separation between the SGN, located in the bony axis of the inner ear, and the CI, which is inserted in the scala tympani, results in suboptimal performance of CI patients and may be decreased by attracting the SGN neurites towards ...

PURPOSE To study cone photoreceptor structure and function in patients with inherited retinal degenerations treated with sustained-release ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). METHODS Two patients with retinitis pigmentosa and one with Usher syndrome type 2 who participated in a phase 2 clinical trial received CNTF delivered by an encapsulated cell technology implant in one eye and sham surger...

Changes in muscle mass and strength across the adult age span are variable and related to the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) genotype. In particular, a single CNTF haplotype (1357 G→A) is important for neuronal and muscular developments and may be associated with muscle strength response to resistance training. We examined whether CNTF genotype differentially influences the effect of resist...

Lineage analyses of vertebrate retinae have led to the suggestions that cell fate decisions are made during or after the terminal cell division and that extrinsic factors can influence fate choices. The evidence for a role of extrinsic factors is strongest for development of rodent rod photoreceptors (‘rods’). In an effort to identify molecules that may regulate rod development, a number of kno...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on retinal ganglion cell (RGC) survival and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) expression in the retina during the early phase of optic nerve (ON) injury, and to examine whether intraperitoneal application of the NOS scavenger nitro-l-arginine (l-NA) could protect the injured RGCs. ME...

PURPOSE Intravitreal injection of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), or basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) promotes survival of photoreceptors exposed to various types of insults, but it is not known if these survival-promoting effects occur by direct action of the factors on photoreceptors or indirectly through the activation of other cells. In thi...