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Characterization Of Canine Photoreceptor Phosducin Cdna And Identification Of A Sequence Variant In Dogs With Photoreceptor Dysplasia, Qi Zhang, Gregory M. Acland, Charles J. Parhsall, Jeanette Haskell, Kunal Ray, Gustavo D. Aguirre Jul 1998

Characterization Of Canine Photoreceptor Phosducin Cdna And Identification Of A Sequence Variant In Dogs With Photoreceptor Dysplasia, Qi Zhang, Gregory M. Acland, Charles J. Parhsall, Jeanette Haskell, Kunal Ray, Gustavo D. Aguirre

Gustavo D. Aguirre, VMD, PhD

Photoreceptor dysplasia (pd) is an autosomal recessive disease of miniature schnauzer dogs causing retinal degeneration. The disease is a homologue of retinitis pigmentosa, a group of genetically heterogeneous diseases, causing blindness in humans. A subtraction library was prepared from retinas of pd affected and age-matched normal control dogs to isolate de novo candidate genes for further examination. From the subtraction library, cDNA for phosducin (PDC), a member of the phototransduction pathway, was isolated as a transcript expressed at a higher level in the affected retina. First, the normal canine PDC cDNA was characterized to evaluate the PDC gene …


Autocrine Hepatocyte Growth Factor Provides A Local Mechanism For Promoting Axonal Growth, X. Yang, J. Toma, S. Bamji, Daniel Belliveau, J. Kohn, M. Park, F. Miller Dec 1997

Autocrine Hepatocyte Growth Factor Provides A Local Mechanism For Promoting Axonal Growth, X. Yang, J. Toma, S. Bamji, Daniel Belliveau, J. Kohn, M. Park, F. Miller

Daniel J. Belliveau

In this report, we describe a novel local mechanism necessary for optimal axonal growth that involves hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). Sympathetic neurons of the superior cervical ganglion coexpress bioactive HGF and its receptor, the Met tyrosine kinase, both in vivo and in vitro. Exogenous HGF selectively promotes the growth but not survival of cultured sympathetic neurons; the magnitude of this growth effect is similar to that observed with exogenous NGF. Conversely, HGF antibodies that inhibit endogenous HGF decrease sympathetic neuron growth but have no effect on survival. This autocrine HGF is required locally by sympathetic axons for optimal growth, as …