CYTOKINES IN THE CENTRAL-NERVOUS-SYSTEM - EXPRESSION OF MACROPHAGE-COLONY-STIMULATING FACTOR AND ITS RECEPTOR DURING DEVELOPMENT

To investigate the potential role of cytokines in the development of t he central nervous system, we analyzed the production of cytokine mRNA transcripts by S1-nuclease protection analysis in the brains of Swiss -Webster mice during fetal development and after birth. Cytokines stud ied were interleukin (IL)-1 alpha, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, macrophage-colony stimulating factor (M-CSF), granulocyte-colony stim ulating factor (G-CSF), granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating fact or (GM-CSF), and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). Only mRNA transcrip ts for M-CSF were found to be produced constitutively in normal brain tissue. These transcripts were detected continuously from embryonic da y (ED) 13 through adulthood. Transcripts encoding the M-CSF receptor ( c-fms) were also detected at all of these time points. Despite identif ication of M-CSF transcripts in the brains of normal mice during devel opment and M-CSF protein in cell cultures, neuropathological examinati on of the brains of op/op mice, a naturally occurring mouse mutant def ective in the production of functional M-CSF, showed no cytoarchitectu ral abnormalities.