Project Summary

Schahram Akbarian, M.D., Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2000) of University of Massachusetts Medical School, is examining the effects of a nerve growth factor called neurotrophin-3 on regulation of norepinephrine cells in the brain.  Nerve growth factors promote the growth and survival of brain cells, and norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter that has been implicated in depression.  Medications that target norepinephrine appear to have good antidepressant activity.  Dr. Akbarian has generated mice that do not express neurotrophin-3 in the brain.  In these mutant mice, he will study those neurons that supply the rest of the brain with norepinephrine.  Preliminary evidence suggests that neurotrophin-3 is in fact an important regulator of the brain cells that produce neurotrophin.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS AREAS\Schizophrenia/Bipolar

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