Journal article
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor promotes central nervous system myelination via a direct effect upon oligodendrocytes
J Xiao, AW Wong, MM Willingham, M Van Den Buuse, TJ Kilpatrick, SS Murray
Neurosignals | Published : 2011
DOI: 10.1159/000323170
Abstract
The extracellular factors that are responsible for inducing myelination in the central nervous system (CNS) remain elusive. We investigated whether brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is implicated, by first confirming that BDNF heterozygous mice exhibit delayed CNS myelination during early postnatal development. We next established that the influence of BDNF upon myelination was direct, by acting on oligodendrocytes, using co-cultures of dorsal root ganglia neurons and oligodendrocyte precursor cells. Importantly, we found that BDNF retains its capacity to enhance myelination of neurons or by oligodendrocytes derived from p75NTR knockout mice, indicating the expression of p75NTR is not..
View full abstractRelated Projects (1)
Grants
Awarded by Australia National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
Funding Acknowledgements
J. Xiao is the recipient of the Betty Cuthbert Fellowship (#454330), from Australia National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia (MSRA). J. Xiao and S. Murray are the recipients of an NHMRC Project Grant (#628761) and MSRA Project Grant. We would like to acknowledge the Operational Infrastructure Scheme of the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Victoria, Australia. We thank Prof. Moses Chao (New York University School of Medicine, USA) for generously supplying us with his phospho-TrkB antibody. We would also like to thank Dr. B. Emery (University of Melbourne, Australia) for helpful discussions and comments on the manuscript during preparation.