Gage F H, Björklund A, Stenevi U
Nature. 1984;308(5960):637-9. doi: 10.1038/308637a0.
Target-derived macromolecules in the peripheral nervous system apparently play an important part in the regulation of neuronal survival and maturation during critical stages of development. Similar trophic factors could also be required in the central nervous system (CNS) for the maintenance of intracerebral connections, and neuronal cell death may result from a decrease or failure of a target-derived trophic support. Recent experiments have demonstrated the presence of factors in brain extracts or astrocytic glial cells which can support the survival of embryonic sympathetic, parasympathetic or sensory ganglionic neurones in vitro. The importance of these putative factors for neuronal survival in vivo has, however, so far not been demonstrated. In the study reported here we have used the intracerebral grafting technique to monitor the availability of survival factors in an adult CNS target area and show here that neonatal rat superior cervical cells, which have an absolute requirement for such factors for their survival, will survive in the hippocampal formation of adult rats only in the presence of a denervating lesion.
外周神经系统中源自靶标的大分子显然在发育关键阶段对神经元存活和成熟的调节中发挥重要作用。中枢神经系统（CNS）维持脑内连接可能也需要类似的营养因子，神经元细胞死亡可能是由于源自靶标的营养支持减少或缺失所致。最近的实验已证明脑提取物或星形胶质细胞中存在一些因子，这些因子在体外可支持胚胎交感神经、副交感神经或感觉神经节神经元的存活。然而，这些假定因子对体内神经元存活的重要性迄今尚未得到证实。在本文报道的研究中，我们利用脑内移植技术监测成年中枢神经系统靶区中存活因子的可利用性，并在此表明，新生大鼠颈上神经节细胞对这类因子的存活具有绝对需求，只有在存在去神经损伤的情况下，它们才会在成年大鼠的海马结构中存活。
