The ability to measure the rat of NGF protein secretion and mRNA levels in vitro, combined with tissue levels and biodynamic effect in vivo, results in unique experimental possibilities. This research is discovering the events and influences that regulate the production of NGF, linkage to receptor activation and activity, and the role the growth factors play in pathophysiology. In a clinical context, disturbance in the supply of neurotrophins results in remodeling of the adult nervous system contributing to disease outcomes. In a more fundamental context, it suggests that the neurotrophins regulate adult neural plasticity. Alterations in the supply of neurotrophin accompany alterations in muscle functional status with both abnormal increases and decreases occurring in different conditions.
Abnormal increases result in neuronal hypertrophy and maladaptive changes in connectivity.
This work is conducted as part of our participation in the Center for the Study of Neurological Disease, in collaboration with investigators in the Department of Neurology. Using both primary neuronal cultures and established neural cell lines, as well as mitochondrial DNA from normal individuals and those afflicted with Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease and other degenerative syndromes, this work attempts to describe the biological basis for specific neuronal vulnerability in neurological disease. Altered regulation of nerve growth factor secretion by cultured vascular smooth muscle cells from hypertensive rats. Immunity to NGF prevents afferent plasticity in spinal cord following hypertrophy of the urinary bladder. Protein kinaseC involvement in stretch-induced nerve growth factor production by urinary tract smooth muscle cells.