Abstract
Embryonic sensory and motoneurons depend on neurotrophic factors for survival. Here we show that their survival requires B-Raf, which, in this function, cannot be substituted by C-Raf. Sensory and motoneurons from b-raf-deficient mice do not respond to neurotrophic factors for their survival. However, these primary neurons can be rescued by transfection of a b-raf expression plasmid. In contrast, c-raf-deficient neurons survive in response to neurotrophic factors, similarly to neurons from wild-type mice. This points to an essential and specific function of B-Raf in mediating survival of sensory and motoneurons during development.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 465, TP A1 and A3. We thank M. Schmied and J. Kara for technical assistance and L. Federov and B. Fröhlen for help with raf-knockout mice. We thank R. Timpl for donation of laminin and T. Jessell for the Islet 1/2 antibody provided by the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (DSHB), Iowa.
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Wiese, S., Pei, G., Karch, C. et al. Specific function of B-Raf in mediating survival of embryonic motoneurons and sensory neurons. Nat Neurosci 4, 137–142 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/83960
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/83960
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