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BDNF-Induced Intracellular Signaling

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Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 143))

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Abstract

The neurotrophin BDNF plays important roles in neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation during development. Furthermore, it has been shown to mediate long-term changes in the synaptic activity in the hippocampus and in other brain regions, which are thought to underlie learning and memory formation. Cultured hippocampal neurons express TrkB receptors and, therefore, constitute a valuable experimental model to study in vitro BDNF-induced intracellular signaling pathways. In this chapter, we describe (1) the methodology used to prepare cultured hippocampal neurons from mice (wild-type-WT or transgenic animals) and rats and (2) three different approaches to investigate BDNF signaling: Western blot and Bio-Plex for overall signaling activity and immunocytochemistry to analyze where signaling activity takes place in neurons. The Bio-Plex approach allows the simultaneous characterization of different pathways using small sample volumes and within a short period of time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (I3S), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    João R. Gomes & Andrea Lobo

  2. Molecular Neurobiology, IBMC-Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    João R. Gomes

  3. Addiction Biology, IBMC-Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Andrea Lobo

  4. CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Carlos B. Duarte & Mário Grãos

  5. Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Carlos B. Duarte

Authors
  1. João R. Gomes
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  2. Andrea Lobo
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  3. Carlos B. Duarte
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  4. Mário Grãos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to João R. Gomes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology and Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Carlos B. Duarte

  2. BRAIN Center for Neuroscience, Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy

    Enrico Tongiorgi

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Gomes, J.R., Lobo, A., Duarte, C.B., Grãos, M. (2017). BDNF-Induced Intracellular Signaling. In: Duarte, C., Tongiorgi, E. (eds) Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). Neuromethods, vol 143. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/7657_2017_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7657_2017_6

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8969-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8970-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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