Scientists reveal role for nitric oxide during brain d...( Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Labora...)

Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have found that experimentally altering nitric oxide levels in the developing brain of tadpoles significantly affects brain size and the number of brain cells. The study is significant because it is the first definitive demonstration of the essential role of nitric oxide during vertebrate brain development.

Grigori Enikolopov, the principal investigator on the new study, has previously made several discoveries concerning how the biochemical messenger nitric oxide signals the cells in a developing organism to stop dividing, enabling them to become specialized cell types. These earlier studies using fruit flies and cultured rat nerve cell precursors indicated that controlled production of nitric oxide by cells in an embryo--the right amount at the right time in the right place--is essential for the organism to develop normally.

In the new study, published in the November 15 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Enikolopov and his colleagues focused on the role of nitric oxide during brain development. They turned to a favored experimental organism, the South African clawed frog, Xenopus.

When the scientists artificially decreased nitric oxide levels in the brains of developing tadpoles, proliferation of brain cells increased, leading to larger than normal brains. Conversely, when nitric oxide levels were artificially increased, brain cell proliferation decreased, and the resulting brains were smaller than normal.

Enikolopov was joined in this study by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researchers Natalia Peunova, Hollis Cline and Vladimir Scheinker.

Most significantly, the scientists discovered an important principle regarding how subtle, localized production of nitric oxide is required for the vertebrate brain to develop normally (see figure). In the "midbrain" of tadpoles, cells in a particular zone first proliferate and then differentiate as they move toward the sides and front of the
'"/>

Contact: Peter Sherwood
sherwood@cshl.org
516-367-6947
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
14-Nov-2001

Page: 1 2
Related biology news :

1. Scientists to prototype cyberinfrastructure for research and education access to ocean observatories
2. Scientists sequence genome of kind of organism central to biospheres carbon cycle
3. Scientists find nanowires capable of detecting individual viruses
4. Scientists discover potential new way to control drug-resistant bacteria
5. Scientists explore genome of methane-breathing microbe
6. Scientists decipher genetic code of biothreat pathogen
7. Stuck on you: Scientists lay bare secrets of bacterial attachment proteins
8. Scientists discover proteins involved in spread of HIV-1 infection
9. Scientists fear new Ebola outbreak may explain sudden gorilla disappearance
10. Scientists reinvent DNA as template to produce organic molecules
11. Scientists visualise cellular handmaiden that restores shape to proteins