title: The Effect of Vitamin D Treatment On Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) Release From Hippocampal Neurons.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vitamin D, the main function of which is thought to be the maintenance of calcium and phosphate homeostasis and bone structure, has been shown in recent studies to have important roles in brain development as well. A certain vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene haplotype was reported, for the first time by our group, to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Our studies also showed that vitamin D prevents beta amyloid-induced calcium elevation and toxicity that target nerve growth factor (NGF) release in cortical neurons; beta amyloid suppresses VDR expression and the disruption of vitamin D-VDR pathway mimics beta amyloid-induced neurodegeneration. In this study, our aim was to investigate the effects of vitamin D on the NGF release from hippocampal neurons.
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary hippocampal neuron cultures that were prepared from 18-day-old Sprague-Dawley rat embryos were treated with vitamin D for 48 hours. The alteration in the NGF release was determined with ELISA. Cytotoxicity tests were also performed for all groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The NGF release in vitamin D-treated group was significantly higher than in untreated control group. The protective effect of vitamin D against cytotoxicity was also observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicated that vitamin D regulates the release of NGF, a very important molecule for neuronal survival of hippocampal neurons as well as cortical neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, İstanbul University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Duygu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gezen-Ak
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, İstanbul University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erdinç
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dursun
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biology, İstanbul University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Selma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yilmazer
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; nerve growth factor; primary hippocampal neuron culture; vitamin D