title: Denervated hippocampus provides a favorable microenvironment for neuronal differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells.
abstract: Fimbria-fornix transection induces both exogenous and endogenous neural stem cells to differentiate into neurons in the hippocampus. This indicates that the denervated hippocampus provides an environment for neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells. However, the pathways and mechanisms in this process are still unclear. Seven days after fimbria fornix transection, our reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, western blot assay, and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay results show a significant increase in ciliary neurotrophic factor mRNA and protein expression in the denervated hippocampus. Moreover, neural stem cells derived from hippocampi of fetal (embryonic day 17) Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with ciliary neurotrophic factor for 7 days, with an increased number of microtubule associated protein-2-positive cells and decreased number of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive cells detected. Our results show that ciliary neurotrophic factor expression is up-regulated in the denervated hippocampus, which may promote neuronal differentiation of neural stem cells in the denervated hippocampus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xue-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: He-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy, Institute of Neurobiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Medical School, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Hua
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5702-6733
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: ciliary neurotrophic factor; fimbria-fornix transection; hippocampus; nerve regeneration; neural regeneration; neural stem cells; neuronal differentiation; neurons