O-2A progenitor cells give rise to both oligodendrocytes and type-2 astrocytes in vitro. Whereas oligodendrocyte differentiation occurs constitutively, type-2 astrocyte differentiation requires extracellular signals, one of which is thought to be ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). CNTF, however, is insufficient by itself to induce the development of stable type-2 astrocytes. In this report we ...

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) participates in the survival of motor neurons and reduces the denervation-induced atrophy of skeletal muscles. Experiments performed in rats show a decrease in peripheral CNTF synthesis during aging, associated with an overexpression of its alpha-binding receptor component by skeletal muscles. Measurement of sciatic nerve CNTF production and of the muscular pe...

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is an abundant cytosolic molecule in myelinating Schwann cells of adult rodents. In newborn animals in which CNTF is not yet expressed, exogenous CNTF that is locally administered very effectively protects motoneurons from degeneration by axotomy. To evaluate whether endogenous CNTF, released after nerve injury from the cytosol of Schwann cells, supports moton...

To study the functional role of activated astrocytes in glutamate homeostasis in vivo, we used a model of sustained astrocytic activation in the rat striatum through lentiviral-mediated gene delivery of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF). CNTF-activated astrocytes were hypertrophic, expressed immature intermediate filament proteins and highly glycosylated forms of their glutamate transporters G...

First described as a survival factor for chick ciliary ganglion neurons, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) has recently been shown to promote survival of chick embryo motor neurons. We now report neurotrophic effects of CNTF toward three populations of rat hippocampal neurons, the first demonstration of effects of CNTF upon rodent CNS neurons in culture. CNTF elicited an increase in the neurof...

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by an elongation of CAG repeats in the HD gene, which encodes a mutant copy of huntingtin with an expanded polyglutatmine repeat. Individuals who are affected by the disease suffer from motor, cognitive, and emotional impairments. Levels of certain striatal-enriched mRNAs decrease in both HD patients and transgenic HD mice prior t...

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) rescues photoreceptors in several animal models of retinal degeneration and is currently being evaluated as a potential treatment for retinitis pigmentosa in humans. This study was conducted to test whether CNTF prevents photoreceptor cell loss in XLPRA2, an early onset canine model of X-linked retinitis pigmentosa caused by a frameshift mutation in RPGR exon ...

Extracellular application of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) to developing neuromuscular junctions in Xenopus nerve-muscle cultures resulted in an increase in the frequency of spontaneous synaptic currents (SSCs) and in the amplitude of nerve-evoked synaptic currents. Analyses of the amplitude and time course of the SSCs suggest that these effects...