Somatostatin (SRIF) prevents natural motoneuron cell death in embryonic chick spinal cord.
Natural motoneuron cell death is a developmental process that effects the loss of about 50% of the cells in the lateral motor column of the spinal cord. The present study demonstrates that the systemic treatment of developing chick embryos with somatostatin (somatotropin release-inhibiting factor, SRIF) during the period of natural motoneuron cell death resulted in a 13-22% increase in the number of surviving motoneurons, suggesting that SRIF may be an endogenous contributor to motoneuron survival during normal development. It is hypothesized that SRIF may act, through its ability to reduce intraneuronal calcium, as an endogenous antagonist of neuronal death both during development and in the course of adult neurodegenerative diseases.
Department of Neurology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans.
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Weill
D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002642:Chick Embryo; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects
D013004:Somatostatin