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DEVELOPMENTAL SIGNALLING
Author(s) -
Hendry I. A.,
Johanson S. O.,
Heydon K.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
clinical and experimental pharmacology and physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1440-1681
pISSN - 0305-1870
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1681.1995.tb02067.x
Subject(s) - second messenger system , sciatic nerve , axoplasmic transport , messenger rna , microbiology and biotechnology , protein subunit , nucleus , g alpha subunit , neurotrophin , neuroscience , chemistry , biology , receptor , anatomy , signal transduction , biochemistry , gene
SUMMARY 1. In investigating the communication paths between target tissue and neurons we have been led to propose two classes of neurotrophic factors. One comprises the factors which transport themselves, the other factors relying on the transport of a second messenger. The former may have labile second messenger systems necessitating the translocation of agonist and receptor from the nerve terminal to the cell body and the latter must possess a stable second messenger system that itself is sufficiently robust to survive the transport to the cell body. 2. One such class of stable messengers may be the GTP‐binding protein family and it has been shown that the alpha subunits of both G iα and G zα can be retrogradely transported in the mouse sciatic nerve. 3. Examination of the cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglia revealed that G α accumulated in the nucleus of cells with intact axons but that 24 h after axonal ligation this immunoreactivity decreased. 4. It is suggested that G zα is activated at the nerve terminal and it, or at least its alpha subunit, undergoes retrograde transport to the cell body where it accumulates in the nucleus.