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Physiological Role of ß-Nerve Growth Factor and Its Possible Pathophysiological Implication in the Central Nervous System

  • Chapter
Integrative Biological Psychiatry

Abstract

Beta-nerve growth factor (NGF) is a well-known 26-kDa homodimeric protein, whose physiological functions are well established in the peripheral nervous system. There NGF has been shown to be essential for the ontogenetic development and maintenance of specialized properties of the sympathetic and neural crest-derived sensory neurons (for reviews, see Greene and Shooter 1980; Thoenen and Barde 1980; Levi-Montalcini 1987). Under physiological conditions, this neurotrophic factor is produced and released in limiting amounts by tissues densely innervated by NGF-sensitive neurons (Korsching and Thoenen 1983a; Heumann et al. 1984; Shelton and Reichardt 1984). Following release, NGF is bound by an NGF receptor on the surface of these neurite terminals, internalized and then transported together with NGF receptors (Korsching and Thoenen 1983b; Palmetier et al. 1984; Johnson et al. 1987; Raivich and Kreutzberg 1987). This apparently occurs in the form of an NGF-NGF receptor complex, which is transported retrogradely to the neuronal perikarya in sympathetic and primary sensory ganglia, where it exerts most of its neurotrophic effects by still unknown second-messenger mechanisms (for reviews, see Thoenen et al. 1985, 1987a; cf. Levi et al. 1988). The function of NGF as a retrograde messenger between peripheral target tissues and their innervating neurons was also recognized from previous observations demonstrating that any restriction of the availability of NGF to the perikarya of NGF-responsive neurons results in serious impairments of their function (Thoenen and Barde 1980; Johnson et al. 1986; Thoenen et al. 1987b): during limited periods of embryonic development administration of anti-NGF antibodies or interruption of the retrograde axonal transport of NGF results in a degeneration of the corresponding neurons.

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  1. R. Hellweg
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  2. C. Hock
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  3. H. D. Hartung
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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie, Kraepelinstraße 10, W-8000, München 40, Germany

    Hinderk M. Emrich

  2. Psychiatrische Klinik der Technischen Universität, Ismaninger Straße 22, W-8000, München 80, Germany

    Michael Wiegand

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Hellweg, R., Hock, C., Hartung, H.D. (1992). Physiological Role of ß-Nerve Growth Factor and Its Possible Pathophysiological Implication in the Central Nervous System. In: Emrich, H.M., Wiegand, M. (eds) Integrative Biological Psychiatry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77168-2_8

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