Effects of ciliary neurotrophic factor and leukemia inhibiting factor on oxytocin and vasopressin magnocellular neuron survival in rat and mouse hypothalamic organotypic cultures

Shirley B. House, Congyu Li, Chunmei Yue, Harold Gainer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Organotypic cultures of mouse and rat magnocellular neurons (MCNs) in the hypothalamo-neurohypophysial system (HNS) have served as important experimental models for the molecular and physiological study of this neuronal phenotype. However, it has been difficult to maintain significant numbers of the MCNs, particularly vasopressin MCNs, in these cultures for long periods. In this paper, we describe the use of the neurotrophic factors, leukemia inhibiting factor (LIF) and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) to rescue rat vasopressin (Avp)- and oxytocin (Oxt)-MCNs from axotomy-induced, programmed cell death in vitro. Quantitative data are presented for the efficacy of the LIF family of neurotrophic factors on the survival of MCNs in three nuclei, the paraventricular (PVN), supraoptic (SON), and accessory (ACC) nuclei in the mouse and rat hypothalamus.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)128-133
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Neuroscience Methods
Volume178
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Mar 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • CNTF
  • Hypothalamus
  • LIF
  • Magnocellular neurons
  • Neurotrophic
  • Organotypic
  • Oxytocin
  • Vasopressin

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