Somatic gene transfer of NGF to the aged brain: behavioral and morphological amelioration.
Primary fibroblasts modified to secrete nerve growth factor (NGF) were implanted into the nucleus basalis magnocellularis (NBM) of aged memory impaired rats. The NGF-producing fibroblasts survived for 6 weeks following transplantation and continued expressing NGF mRNA through the duration of the experiment. A significant amelioration of the memory impairment and a significant increase in size and number of low-affinity NGF receptor (p75)-positive neurons in the basal forebrain were observed. Implantation of NGF- producing cells into normal young adult rats resulted in a transient but significant memory impairment and hypertrophy of low-affinity NGF receptor-positive neurons. These results show that naturally occurring age-related memory loss can be reversed by grafting cells engineered to secrete NGF directly to the NBM, and that either cholinergic hyper- or hypofunction may lead to cognitive impairments.[1]References
- Somatic gene transfer of NGF to the aged brain: behavioral and morphological amelioration. Chen, K.S., Gage, F.H. J. Neurosci. (1995) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg
