Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 16, 2026
05:01
Inducing Long-Term Plasticity of Intrinsic Neuronal Excitability in Neurons of the Dorsal Lateral Geniculate Nucleus
Published on: September 20, 2024
Growth factors and plasticity.
Stéphane V Sizonenko1, Nathalie Bednarek, Pierre Gressens
1Service du Développement et de la Croissance, Département de Pédiatrie, Faculté de Médecine, Geneva, Switzerland.
Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine
|March 6, 2007
Summary
Neuroprotective agents can prevent brain lesion progression and promote repair in developing brains. Promising preclinical data suggest melatonin and erythropoietin may advance to clinical trials for treating perinatal brain damage.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Brain lesions in developing individuals present challenges for both prevention and treatment.
- While early intervention is ideal, targeting delayed cell death and enhancing post-lesion plasticity are key therapeutic goals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review neurotrophic agents and their potential for treating perinatal brain damage.
- To evaluate the efficacy of trophic factors in limiting delayed cell death and promoting neural repair.
Main Methods:
- Review of preclinical studies on trophic factors in animal models of perinatal brain injury.
- Analysis of agents like melatonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor for their effects on cell death and plasticity.
Main Results:
- Several trophic factors demonstrate potential in limiting delayed cell death in animal models.
- Melatonin and brain-derived neurotrophic factor show promise in enhancing post-lesion plasticity after neonatal excitotoxic white-matter damage.
Conclusions:
- Trophic factors offer a promising avenue for neuroprotection and repair in developing brains.
- Further preclinical research is necessary, but melatonin and erythropoietin are potential candidates for clinical trials.
Related Concept Videos
01:01Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity reflects the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt and evolve, responding dynamically to learning, experiences, or injury by reorganizing its neural circuitry. This reorganization involves creating new neural connections and refining old ones through a series of biological processes that contribute to the brain's lifelong development and adaptability.
00:58Plasticity
Plasticity is the property where an object loses its elasticity and undergoes irreversible deformation, even after the deformation forces are eliminated. If a material deforms irreversibly without increasing stress or load, then this is called ideal plasticity. For example, when a force is applied to an aluminum rod, it changes its shape, but it does not return to its original shape once the force is removed. Plastic deformation or ductility is thus a permanent deformation or change in the...
01:29Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Reprogramming alters the gene expression in somatic cells, transforming them into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells over several generations. Scientists can reprogram cells by introducing genes for four transcription factors—Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM) by viral or non-viral methods. These factors are also known as Yamanaka factors after Shinya Yamanaka, who first generated iPS cells using mouse skin cells. Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for this...
01:15Neurogenesis and Regeneration of Nervous Tissue
In the CNS, neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons from stem cells, is limited to the hippocampus in adults. In other regions of the brain and spinal cord, neurogenesis is almost non-existent due to inhibitory influences from neuroglia, especially oligodendrocytes, and the absence of growth-stimulating cues. The myelin produced by oligodendrocytes in the CNS inhibits neuronal regeneration. Furthermore, astrocytes proliferate rapidly after neuronal damage, forming scar tissue that physically...
02:36Meristems and Plant Growth
Plants grow throughout their lives; this is called indeterminate growth, and it distinguishes plants from most animals. Although certain parts of plants stop growing (e.g., leaves and flowers), others grow continuously—like roots and stems.
01:35Long-term Potentiation
Long-term potentiation, or LTP, is one of the ways by which synaptic plasticity—changes in the strength of chemical synapses—can occur in the brain. LTP is the process of synaptic strengthening that occurs over time between pre- and postsynaptic neuronal connections. The synaptic strengthening of LTP works in opposition to the synaptic weakening of long-term depression (LTD) and together are the main mechanisms that underlie learning and memory.