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Down regulation of trophic factors in neonatal rat spinal cord after administration of cerebrospinal fluid from sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients

  • Basic Neurosciences, Genetics and Immunology - Original Article
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Abstract

Accumulating evidence supports neuroprotective role of trophic factors in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Previous studies from our laboratory report that the CSF of patients with sporadic ALS (ALS-CSF) induces degenerative changes in the rat spinal motor neurons and reactive astrogliosis in the surrounding gray matter. The present study was aimed to investigate if the ALS-CSF affected the expression of trophic factors namely, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) in the newborn rat spinal cords. ALS-CSF was intrathecally injected into the neonatal rats and the mRNA levels of the trophic factors were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Here, we report significant down regulation in the gene expression of trophic factors for BDNF, FGF2 and IGF1. BDNF mRNA levels were found to be reduced by 6.8-fold in the ALS-CSF injected group compared to control groups. The levels of IGF1 and FGF2 mRNA were also decreased by 3.91- and 2.13-fold, respectively, in the ALS group. We further found that exogenous supplementation of BDNF considerably reduced the aberrant phosphorylation of neurofilaments, complementing our earlier findings of restored expression of voltage gated sodium channel. Reduced expression of trophic factors indicates an altered microenvironment of the motor neurons and could possibly be one of the contributing factors in the degeneration process.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), Govt of India. Ms. Deepa and Dr. Vijayalakshmi are supported by the senior research fellowship and research associate fellowship, respectively, of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt of India.

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Author notes

  1. Neelam Shahani

    Present address: Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurophysiology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Hosur Road, PB # 2900, Bangalore, 560 029, India

    P. Deepa, Neelam Shahani, Phalguni Anand Alladi, K. Vijayalakshmi, T. N. Sathyaprabha & T. R. Raju

  2. Department of Neurovirology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Hosur Road, PB # 2900, Bangalore, 560 029, India

    V. Ravi

  3. Department of Neurology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Hosur Road, PB # 2900, Bangalore, 560 029, India

    A. Nalini

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  1. P. Deepa
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Correspondence to T. R. Raju.

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Deepa, P., Shahani, N., Alladi, P.A. et al. Down regulation of trophic factors in neonatal rat spinal cord after administration of cerebrospinal fluid from sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. J Neural Transm 118, 531–538 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-010-0520-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-010-0520-6

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