| Type: | Family | Name: | Neurotrophin-3 |
| Description: | During the development of the vertebrate nervous system, many neurons become redundant (because they have died, failed to connect to target cells, etc.) and are eliminated. At the same time, developing neurons send out axon outgrowths that contact their target cells []. Such cells control their degree of innervation (the number of axon connections) by the secretion of various specific neurotrophic factors that are essential for neuron survival. One of these is nerve growth factor (NGF or beta-NGF), a vertebrate protein that stimulates division and differentiation of sympathetic and embryonic sensory neurons [, ]. NGF is mostly found outside the central nervous system (CNS), but slight traces have been detected in adult CNS tissues, although a physiological role for this is unknown []; it has also been found in several snake venoms [, ].NGF is a protein of about 120 residues that is cleaved from a larger precursor molecule. It contains six cysteines all involved in intrachain disulphide bonds.Neurotrophin-3 is a neurotrophic factor related to NGF and BDNF []. NT-3 and its receptor TrkC are found in the spinal cord, and their expression is altered by voluntary exercise [, , ]. In the brain, NT-3 and NT-4/5 may function synergistically with oleic acid to increase GAP-43 expression []. | Short Name: | Neurotrophin-3 |
