Control of Embryonic Motoneuron Survival in Vivo by Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor

During development of the nervous system, neurons in many regions are overproduced by proliferation, after which the excess cells are eliminated by cell death. The survival of only a proportion of neurons during normal development is thought to be regulated by the limited availability of neurotrophi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1991-03, Vol.251 (5001), p.1616-1618
Main Authors: Oppenheim, Ronald W., Prevette, David, Qin-Wei, Yin, Collins, Frank, MacDonald, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ageing, cell death
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
Cell death
Cell physiology
Cell Survival - drug effects
Cells, Cultured
Cellular biology
Chick Embryo
Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor
Developmental neurology
Dosage
Embryos
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Ganglia
Growth factors
Kinetics
Medical research
Molecular and cellular biology
Molecules
Motor neurons
Motor Neurons - cytology
Motor Neurons - drug effects
Nerve Growth Factors - pharmacology
Nerve Tissue Proteins - pharmacology
Nervous system
Neurons
Neuroscience
Physiological regulation
Recombinant Proteins - pharmacology
Spinal Cord - cytology
Spinal Cord - embryology
Statistical significance
T tests
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Summary:During development of the nervous system, neurons in many regions are overproduced by proliferation, after which the excess cells are eliminated by cell death. The survival of only a proportion of neurons during normal development is thought to be regulated by the limited availability of neurotrophic agents. One such putative trophic agent is ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), a polypeptide that promotes the survival of ciliary, sensory, and sympathetic neurons in vitro. In contrast to the results of in vitro studies, however, the daily treatment of chick embryos in vivo with purified human recombinant CNTF failed to rescue any of these cell populations from cell death, whereas CNTF did promote the in vivo survival of spinal motoneurons. Thus, CNTF may not act as a neurotrophic agent in vivo for those embryonic neurons (especially ciliary neurons) on which it acts in vitro. Rather, CNTF may be required for in vivo survival of motoneurons.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.2011743