Hopker, Veit Helmut;
(1995)
Trophic actions of myenteric plexus explants on striatal neurons in cell culture.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The aims of this work were to investigate the neurotrophic effect of the myenteric plexus on neurons of the central nervous system (CNS) and to determine which factors are involved in the events leading to increased neurite elongation of postnatal CNS neurons in coculture with myenteric plexus explants. Previous investigations in the Department of Anatomy (UCL) of the use of enteric ganglia as a source of material for grafting into the CNS have revealed that the myenteric plexus produces a sprouting response by the host brain (Tew et al., 1992, 1994). These observations suggest that the gut, and the myenteric plexus in particular, may be a source of growth promoting factors which are active on CNS neurons. To investigate this further a novel coculture system of myenteric plexus explants with dissociated striatal neurons was developed as a model to determine if different cellular components of the myenteric plexus produce soluble factors active on striatal neurons and to analyse the effect of such factors on these neurons in vitro. Neurotrophic effects were quantified by measuring neurite elongation of striatal neurons. Neuronal and glial cell numbers were counted to investigate correlations between neurite elongation and cell numbers. The factors investigated during my work included growth factors, extracellular matrix molecules, gangliosides and neurotransmitters. The experimental results revealed that cells from the myenteric plexus promote neurite elongation of striatal neurons in vitro. This effect was independent of the elevation of striatal cell numbers and could be abolished by tetrodotoxin. A strong neuritogenic effect was only observed in the presence of myenteric plexus cells and could not be repeated by administration of several, different growth promoting substances to striatal neurons alone. Adenosine and nitric oxide and also the second messenger cAMP were found to be involved in the events leading to increased striatal neurite outgrowth. Gangliosides promoted neurite outgrowth of striatal neurons but their involvement in the growth promoting effect of the myenteric plexus on striatal neurons in vitro could not be demonstrated.
Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
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Qualification: | Ph.D |
Title: | Trophic actions of myenteric plexus explants on striatal neurons in cell culture |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | Thesis digitised by ProQuest. |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10101109 |
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