Expression of neurotrophins and their receptors in primary astroglial cultures: induction by XXXX -elevating agents.

@entity2136 @entity5393 @entity10865 @entity3249 @entity1920 @entity5987 @entity1922 @entity1919 @entity35 @entity669 @entity10863 @entity10864
By northern blot analysis and ribonuclease protection assay, we observed the presence of a high level of @entity10864 mRNA in primary brain cultures devoid of neuronal cells and highly enriched in glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive astroglial cells prepared from newborn @entity35 cerebral hemispheres, cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. In primary astroglial cultures, the more abundant @entity10864 transcripts code for the truncated receptor without @entity669 kinase activity; probes specific for the full-length @entity10864 mRNA did not detect any signal in northern blot analysis. By the sensitive ribonuclease protection assay, we could show the presence of @entity10865 mRNA in cultured astrocytes, whereas no @entity3249 mRNA was detected. We confirmed the presence of relatively high levels of nerve growth factor and neurotrophin-3 mRNA, and very low basal level of @entity2136 mRNA. Moreover, we demonstrated that another member of the neurotrophin family, @entity10863 , is also expressed in cultured astroglial cells. In view of the fact that many functional receptors for conventional neurotransmitters or neuropeptides present on astroglial cells may act via the @entity1920 cyclase system, we studied also the effect of agents able to increase the intracellular @entity1919 concentration. A sharp increase in the @entity10864 mRNA level was observed after treatment of primary astroglial cultures with @entity5393 , @entity5987 , or the phosphodiesterase inhibitor, @entity1922 . On the contrary, @entity10865 mRNA levels were unaffected by treatment with @entity1919 -elevating agents. All the neurotrophin mRNAs examined, except neutrophin-4, were increased by @entity1922 treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
