In vivo NGF treatment increases proliferation in the primary sympathetic ganglia of chick embryos

Ronald S. Goldstein, Camila Avivi, Revital Geffen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    15 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Nerve growth factor (NGF) is considered to be a target-derived survival or differentiation factor for neural crest cells of the sympathoadrenal lineage. However, exogenous NGF was found to have a positive effect on the size of the primary sympathetic ganglia (PSG) of the chick embryo, well before sympathetic innervation of the periphery. We have determined the cellular mechanism of NGF's action on the PSG by quantifying both proliferation and apoptosis. The proportion of PSG cells in S-phase is nearly double in NGF-treated embryos compared to that in controls, strongly suggesting that NGF acts as a mitogenic factor. NGF reduced the low level of apoptosis at this stage as well. Since trkA has not been detected in the avian sympathetic ganglia until later in development, we suggest that these early effects of exogenous NGF may be mediated by the low-affinity neurotrophin receptor, p75, which is expressed from neural crest migration stages.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)116-120
    Number of pages5
    JournalDevelopmental Biology
    Volume181
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Jan 1997

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    Our thanks to Professor Ron Oppenheim for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Health Science Center at Bar-Ilan University, the Aviv Fund for Neuroscience Research, and the Dysautonomia Foundation Inc. The anti-BrDU antibodies were obtained from the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank maintained by the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, and the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Iowa, under Contract N01-HD-6-2915 from the NICHD.

    Funding

    Our thanks to Professor Ron Oppenheim for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by the Health Science Center at Bar-Ilan University, the Aviv Fund for Neuroscience Research, and the Dysautonomia Foundation Inc. The anti-BrDU antibodies were obtained from the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank maintained by the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, and the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Iowa, under Contract N01-HD-6-2915 from the NICHD.

    FundersFunder number
    Aviv fund for Neuroscience Research
    Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
    Dysautonomia Foundation Inc.
    Health Science Center at Bar-Ilan University
    Johns Hopkins UniversityN01-HD-6-2915
    Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

      Fingerprint

      Dive into the research topics of 'In vivo NGF treatment increases proliferation in the primary sympathetic ganglia of chick embryos'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

      Cite this