GROWTH FACTOR SIGNALING AND NEURAL PROGENITOR CELL FATE

神经营养因子、神经有丝分裂原和其他生长因子是可溶性的 特定神经元的存活和/或功能所必需的蛋白质 在一个生物体的整个生命周期中。因为他们的 神经系统的重要性，这些因素已经被广泛 研究以获得对它们的信号的基本科学理解 它们在神经发育过程中的作用。 在 此外，由于生长因子已被证明可以促进存活， 各种各样的神经元亚型，有兴趣将它们应用于 治疗各种神经退行性疾病和创伤已经飙升， 近年 生长因子的基础、机制研究 信令和细胞响应可以产生感兴趣的信息， 了解它们在发育过程中的作用，在成年人中， 老年动物 这一建议涉及的假设是， 生长因子信号传导的定量性质在 确定靶细胞应答。 为了解决这个假设， 具体目标是：i）表征增殖性和/或 神经前体细胞对不同生长的分化反应 ii）为了量化在细胞中的生长因子刺激信号， 主要神经前体并分析其是否具有定量性质 iii）为了确定细胞是否 命运可受生长因子受体水平的影响。

Neurotrophins, neuromitogens, and other growth factors are soluble proteins necessary for the survival and/or function of specific neuronal populations throughout the life of an organism. Because of their significance to the nervous system, these factors nave been extensively studied to gain a basic scientific understanding of their signaling mechanisms and the role they play during neural development. In addition, since growth factors have been shown to promote the survival of a wide variety of neuronal subtypes, interest in applying them to treat a variety of neurodegenerative disorders and trauma has soared in recent years. Fundamental, mechanistic studies of growth factor signaling and cellular response may yield information of interest for understanding of their role during development, in the adult, and in aged animals. This proposal addresses the hypothesis that the quantitative nature of growth factor signaling is important in determining target cell response. To address this hypothesis, the specific goals are: i) To characterize the proliferative and/or differentiative responses of neural precursors to different growth factors, ii) To quantify the growth factor-stimulated signal in the primary neural precursors and analyze whether the quantitative nature of the signal correlates with cell fate, iii) To determine whether cell fate can be influenced by levels of a growth factor receptor.