The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.

wikigene or wiki gene protein drug chemical gene disease author authorship tracking collaborative publishing evolutionary knowledge reputation system wiki2.0 global collaboration genes proteins drugs chemicals diseases compound
Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
 
 
 
 
 

VEGF-C is a trophic factor for neural progenitors in the vertebrate embryonic brain.

Vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) was first identified as a regulator of the vascular system, where it is required for the development of lymphatic vessels. Here we report actions of VEGF-C in the central nervous system. We detected the expression of the VEGF-C receptor VEGFR-3 in neural progenitor cells in Xenopus laevis and mouse embryos. In Xenopus tadpole VEGF-C knockdowns and in mice lacking Vegfc, the proliferation of neural progenitors expressing VEGFR-3 was severely reduced, in the absence of intracerebral blood vessel defects. In addition, Vegfc-deficient mouse embryos showed a selective loss of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) in the embryonic optic nerve. In vitro, VEGF-C stimulated the proliferation of OPCs expressing VEGFR-3 and nestin-positive ventricular neural cells. VEGF-C thus has a new, evolutionary conserved function as a growth factor selectively required by neural progenitor cells expressing its receptor VEGFR-3.[1]

References

  1. VEGF-C is a trophic factor for neural progenitors in the vertebrate embryonic brain. Le Bras, B., Barallobre, M.J., Homman-Ludiye, J., Ny, A., Wyns, S., Tammela, T., Haiko, P., Karkkainen, M.J., Yuan, L., Muriel, M.P., Chatzopoulou, E., Bréant, C., Zalc, B., Carmeliet, P., Alitalo, K., Eichmann, A., Thomas, J.L. Nat. Neurosci. (2006) [Pubmed]
 
WikiGenes - Universities