CNTF overproduction hastens onset of symptoms inmotor neuron degeneration (mnd) mice

✍ Scribed by Winter, Christopher G. ;Saotome, Yas ;Saotome, Ichiko ;Hirsh, David

• Book ID: 102655483
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 837 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-3034
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4695(199611)31:3<370::aid-neu9>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) promotes the survival of motor neurons, in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, CNTF can block the degeneration of injured or diseased motor neurons in young rodents. Motor neuron degeneration (mnd) mutant mice display adult onset symptoms reflecting progressive motor debilitation and provide a model in which to test the hypothesis that CNTF can prevent the loss of these motor functions. W e generated mnd mice that harbor a genomically integrated transgene, resulting in overexpression of the encoded CNTF protein in these mice. In contrast to the beneficial effects of CNTF in preventing motor neuron degeneration in other experimental paradigms, we report that overproduction of CNTF increased the rate of onset of motor disease symptoms in mnd mice and the presence of the transgene correlated with low adult body weight in mad and wildtype genetic backgrounds.