Elliott Janet, MacLellan Adam, Saini Jaswinder K, Chan Janice, Scott Samuel, Kawaja Michael D
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Neuroreport. 2009 Feb 18;20(3):223-7. doi: 10.1097/wnr.0b013e32831add70.
Ectopic expression of nerve growth factor (NGF) in transgenic mice leads to site-specific sympathetic sprouting. Smooth muscle cells in the intestines, urinary bladder, and arteries have been shown to express NGF. To address whether enhanced NGF production among these different organ systems stimulates comparable patterns of sympathetic collateral growth, we generated transgenic mice that express NGF under the control of the smooth muscle alpha-actin promoter. In response to elevated levels of NGF protein in the colon, bladder, and arteries/arterioles, sympathetic axons displayed robust sprouting only in the colon and bladder. These data reveal that, unlike most other peripheral tissues, sympathetic efferents in adult mammalian arteries/arterioles do not undergo collateral growth in response to increased levels of smooth muscle-derived NGF.
神经生长因子（NGF）在转基因小鼠中的异位表达导致位点特异性交感神经芽生。已证明肠道、膀胱和动脉中的平滑肌细胞表达NGF。为了研究这些不同器官系统中NGF产生的增加是否会刺激类似的交感神经侧支生长模式，我们构建了在平滑肌α-肌动蛋白启动子控制下表达NGF的转基因小鼠。由于结肠、膀胱和动脉/小动脉中NGF蛋白水平升高，交感神经轴突仅在结肠和膀胱中表现出强烈的芽生。这些数据表明，与大多数其他外周组织不同，成年哺乳动物动脉/小动脉中的交感传出神经不会因平滑肌来源的NGF水平升高而发生侧支生长。
