title: Elevated glial brain-derived neurotrophic factor in Parkinson's diseased nigra.
abstract: We show the cellular distribution of immunoreactivity (IR) for brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and tyrosine kinase receptors TRKB and TRKC in idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) and controls at post-mortem. In both groups, nigral neurons, astrocytes, ramified and amoeboid microglia expressed all antigens. Caudate-putamen neurons expressed all antigens except BDNF with similar distribution between groups. In IPD nigra, increased numbers of BDNF-IR and, less frequently, NT-3-IR ramified glia surrounded fragmented neurons, accompanied by BDNF-IR in surrounding neuropil. Amoeboid microglia were abundant only in IPD nigral scars. In IPD, glia might up-regulate neurotrophins in response to signals released from failing nigral neurons.
authors.affiliation: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK. c.knott@ic.ac.uk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Knott
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kingsbury
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Welcher
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Wilkin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D017628:Microglia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D017072:Neostriatum / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D020933:Neurotrophin 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D020813:Receptor, trkB / Q000378:metabolism; D020812:Receptor, trkC / Q000378:metabolism; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D020933:Neurotrophin 3; D020813:Receptor, trkB; D020812:Receptor, trkC