Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1985. Our studies examine the role of target-derived neurotrophins using a transgenic mouse model system in which neurotrophin cDNAs are overexpressed in the skin using a fusion gene construct that contains a skin specific gene promoter linked to the various neurotrophin cDNAs.
Skin is a target tissue of neurons that normally expresses neurotrophins during development.
By providing an increased level of the neurotrophins in this target tissue, we have increased the survival rate of the developing neurons. Overproduction of the neurotrophins causes changes in the innervation density and character of the neurons projecting to the skin and, particularly in the case of the NGF transgenics, a major hypertrophy of the peripheral nervous system. We are studying the molecular and cellular mechanisms that induce these changes in the nervous system and the effects of neurotrophin overexpression on the epidermal target tissue. D.E. Wright and B.M. Davis. Overexpression of nerve growth factor in epidermis of transgenic mice causes hypertrophy of the peripheral nervous system.