Objective
The death of cells by apoptosis is a normal, but still poorly understood process in the developing nervous system. Apoptosis can affect some neurons already at the time of their last mitosis, or later, when their axons reach the target cells. Defined groups of premigratory neural crest cells also die, for example in rhombomeres 3 and 5 of the hindbrain. This early death might serve the purpose of patterning crest cells before migration. In the present proposal, early apoptosis will be studied in the retina and in the hindbrain, together with the growth factors that appear to regulate cells death. Recent results indicate that brain-derived neurotrophic factor controls the survival of retinal cells very early during the formation of the retina, whereas bone morphogenetic protein 4 induces the death of crest cells. We will study the developmental patterns of expression of these factors and of their receptors and correlate these with areas where apoptosis can be observed. Chick embryos, as well as cultured cells, will be treated with growth factors, with agents blocking their action, and with specific inhibitors of cell death, including protease inhibitors. The resulting anatomical alterations will be examined in order to gain insight into the physiological meaning of cell death. The role of the neurotrophin receptor p75 as a regulator of early cell death will also be examined, especially with regard to its ability to participate in signal transduction. Recent results indicate that its intracellular domain binds cytoplasmic proteins, including one that contains zinc finger motifs (named "neurotrophin receptor interacting factor", NRIF). The generation of nrif (-1-) mice will help to understand the function of the p75 receptor and its role in the regulation of apoptosis.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineophthalmology
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologycells technologiesstem cells
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineembryology
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
82152 Planegg-Martinsried
Germany