Grant: Operating Grant

During the development of the nervous system 50% of the neurons that are generated die because their nerve fibers have failed to make correct connections that supply nerve growth factor (NGF) or a similar growth factor to the neurons. We have found that sympathetic neurons in specialized compartmented cultures die when their nerve endings are deprived of NGF because the removal of NGF generates a death signal in the nerve fibers that travels back to the cell body of the neuron and activates mechanisms that kill the neuron. We propose to investigate the detailed mechanism that generates the death signal and transports it to the cell body which will provide insight into how neurons can be kept alive in patients with neurodegenerative diseases or spinal cord or brain injury.