Spatio-temporal expression of a novel neuron-derived neurotrophic factor (NDNF) in mouse brains during development.
BACKGROUND
Neuron-derived neurotrophic factor (NDNF) is evolutionarily well conserved, being present in invertebrate animals such as the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. Multiple cysteines are conserved between species and secondary structure prediction shows that NDNF is mainly composed of beta-strands. In this study, we aimed to investigate the function of NDNF.


RESULTS
NDNF is a glycosylated, disulfide-bonded secretory protein that contains a fibronectin type III domain. NDNF promoted migration and growth and elicited neurite outgrowth of mouse hippocampal neurons in culture. NDNF also protected cultured hippocampal neurons against excitotoxicity and amyloid beta-peptide toxicity. Western blotting showed that NDNF was exclusively expressed in the brain and spinal cord. Immunostaining indicated that NDNF was expressed by neurons and not by astrocytes. Cajal-Retzius cells, cortex neurons, hippocampus neurons, olfactory mitral cells, cerebellar purkinje cells, cerebellar granular cells and spinal neurons were found to be NDNF-positive. NDNF expression was observed in the neurons during development.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicated that NDNF is a novel neurotrophic factor derived from neurons that may be useful in the treatment of neuronal degeneration diseases and nerve injuries.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Medical School, Henan University, KaiFeng, PR China.
Xiu-Li
XL
Kuang
Xiao-Mei
XM
Zhao
Hai-Fang
HF
Xu
Yuan-Yuan
YY
Shi
Jin-Bo
JB
Deng
Guo-Tao
GT
Sun
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001001:Anura; D001483:Base Sequence; D001921:Brain / Q000196:embryology* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002417:Cattle; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002645:Chickens; D019610:Cytoprotection / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D004330:Drosophila; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009348:Nematoda; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats
C561304:NDNF protein, mouse; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors