Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) has potent survival-promoting effects on motoneurons in vitro and in vivo. We examined knockout mice with null mutations of the gene for either CNTF itself or the alpha-subunit of the CNTF receptor (CNTFRalpha) to assess whether CNTF and/or its receptors are involved in the development of a sexually dimorphic neuromuscular system. Male rodents have many more m...

OBJECTIVE to determine whether the administration of Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor (CNTF) at the site of repaired facial nerve enhances regeneration in the adult sheep model. METHODS Ten adult sheep were divided into 2 groups: control and study group (CNTF group). In the CNTF group, the buccal branch of the facial nerve was transected and then repaired by epineural sutures. CNTF was injected ov...

objective: to assess the effect of heparin binding neurotrophic factor (hbnf) on sciatic nerve regeneration in animal model of rat. methods: seventy-five male wistar rats were divided into five experimental groups randomly (each group containing 15 animals): sham operation group (sham), autograft group (auto), transected control (tc), chitosan conduit (chit) and heparin binding neurotrophic fac...

Precise cellular targeting of macromolecular cargos has important biotechnological and medical implications. Using a recently established 'protein stapling' method, we linked the proteolytic domain of botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT/A) to a selection of ligands to target neuroendocrine tumor cells. The botulinum proteolytic domain was chosen because of its well-known potency to block the rele...