Chapter 13 Neurotrophic factors in the CNS

Abstract

The identification of a number of growth factors and hormones that have well-defined activities outside the nervous system as neurotrophic agents in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system is an example of the familiar economy of usage that defines biological systems. The chapter emphasizes the fact that the superficial differences between trophic and plastic stimulations may be greatly obscured at the mechanistic level. The distinguishing principles will almost certainly occur at the level of gene expression, predetermined by the state of differentiation of the cell. Thus the response of a fibroblast to fibroblast growth factor that leads to cell division will not likely be distinguished from the trophic response of a neuron, with the production of neurites, by the signal transduced at the plasma membranes, but rather by the genes that are ultimately expressed in response to the stimuli. Show more