B. Blondet et al., BRAIN-DERIVED NEUROTROPHIC FACTOR FAILS TO ARREST NEUROMUSCULAR DISORDERS IN THE PARALYZE MOUSE MUTANT, A MODEL OF MOTONEURON DISEASE, Journal of the neurological sciences, 153(1), 1997, pp. 20-24
Several new neurotrophic factors have been recently identified and sho
wn to prevent motoneuron death in vitro and in vivo. One such agent is
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In this study, we tested BD
NF on an animal model of early-onset motoneuron disease: the paralyse
mouse mutant, characterized by a progressive skeletal muscle atrophy a
nd the loss of 30-35% of spinal lumbar motoneurons between the first a
nd second week post-natal. The results show that subcutaneous injectio
ns of 1 or 10 mg/kg BDNF did not have any significant effect in increa
sing the mean survival time of mutant mice or in preventing the loss o
f motor function and total body weight in paralyse mice. The weight an
d choline acetyltransferase activity of specific muscles and the numbe
r of motoneurons in the spinal cords were identical in BDNF-treated an
d placebo-injected paralyse mice. These results suggest that BDNF does
not act on the disease profess in paralyse mice in the conditions we
used. By contrast, BDNF has previously been shown to partially prevent
the loss of motor function in the wobbler mouse, a suggested model of
later-onset motoneuron disease. Taken together these findings suggest
that BDNF acts differently on early and late-onset motoneuron disease
s. It is however possible that treatment of paralyse mice with BDNF or
combinations of different neurotrophic factors prior to the phenotypi
cal expression of the paralyse mutation may prevent the loss of motor
function and motoneurons in mutant mice. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V
.