Goto A, Furukawa S
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Nihon Seikeigeka Gakkai Zasshi. 1995 Jul;69(7):506-16.
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) are neurotrophic factors involved in the neurotrophin family. However, while their biological activities on cultured neurons and their distribution have been reported, their functions in the central nervous system including the spinal cord are still unknown. We have recently developed antibodies to BDNF and to NT-3 synthetic peptides with different amino acid sequences as tools to visualize these molecules in in vivo tissue. Each antibody was specific to either BDNF or NT-3. Using these antibodies, we investigated the distribution of BDNF- or NT-3-like immunoreactivities (LI) in the spinal cord following transection in rats. In Group with an uninjured spinal cord as control, both BDNF-LI and NT-3-LI were localized in the gray matter, and particularly in the motor neurons of the ventral horn, and in some axons and glial cells of the white matter. In Group after transection of the spinal cord as a model of spinal injury, the motor neurons in the spinal cord, were strongly stained by anti-NT-3 antibodies and less strong by anti-BDNF antibodies at 3 weeks after injury. In the gray matter at 4 weeks after injury, astrocyte-like cells were markedly stained with anti-BDNF antibodies These findings indicate that in the spinal cord after injury, the biosynthesis of BDNF was upregulated in a different manner from that of NT-3 and that BDNF and NT-3 were both involved in the repair mechanisms, directing the amelioration of the spinal cord injury.
脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）和神经营养素-3（NT-3）是神经营养因子家族中的成员。然而，尽管它们对培养神经元的生物学活性及其分布已有报道，但它们在包括脊髓在内的中枢神经系统中的功能仍不清楚。我们最近开发了针对BDNF和具有不同氨基酸序列的NT-3合成肽的抗体，作为在体内组织中可视化这些分子的工具。每种抗体对BDNF或NT-3都具有特异性。利用这些抗体，我们研究了大鼠脊髓横断后BDNF或NT-3样免疫反应性（LI）的分布。在以未损伤脊髓为对照的组中，BDNF-LI和NT-3-LI均定位于灰质，特别是腹角运动神经元以及白质的一些轴突和神经胶质细胞中。在作为脊髓损伤模型的脊髓横断后的组中，损伤后3周，脊髓中的运动神经元被抗NT-3抗体强烈染色，而被抗BDNF抗体染色较弱。在损伤后4周的灰质中，星形胶质样细胞被抗BDNF抗体明显染色。这些发现表明，在脊髓损伤后，BDNF的生物合成以与NT-3不同的方式上调，并且BDNF和NT-3都参与了修复机制，指导脊髓损伤的改善。
