title: The involvement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the pattern generator of mastication.
abstract: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a family of neurotrophins that plays crucial roles in neural development, survival, maintenance and regeneration both in central and peripheral nervous systems. To examine the effects of BDNF on mastication, jaw movement trajectories and masticatory muscle activities were electrophysiologically investigated in BDNF-deficient mice, compared with those of littermate wild-type mice. BDNF-deficient mice showed less number of chewing strokes and more irregular chewing pattern during mastication than wild-type mice. Masseter muscle activities of BDNF-deficient mice exhibited smaller values than those of wild-type mice. No significant difference in the cycle duration existed between these two types of the mice. These results indicate that the burst pattern is more susceptible to peripheral sensory inputs than the timing and suggest the involvement of BDNF in the control of jaw movement.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Physiology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8588, Japan. okayasu@net.nagasaki-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Okayasu
authors.forename: Yoshiaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Takeyasu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Kumiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000172:deficiency / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004435:Eating / Q000235:genetics; D004576:Electromyography / Q000379:methods; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000235:genetics; D007568:Jaw / Q000502:physiology; D008406:Masseter Muscle / Q000502:physiology; D008409:Mastication / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor