Development And Regeneration In The Nervous System

This authoritative volume brings together chapters by international experts on key issues in developmental neurobiology. A central theme is the way in which current work on the trophic and cellular interactions that regulate the growth and guidance of regenerating nerves offers hope for the neurologically damaged patient.

Data of all relevant aspects of neuronal cell growth and differentiation are presented in this volume. Regulation of expression, storage and release of nerve growth factors, receptor control and the cellular responses to growth factors are comprehensively discussed. Treated are also influences of various neurotransmitters on neuronal morphogenesis and new results of interactions of cells and mediators of the immune, endocrine and nervous system. Special emphasis is given to those factors regulating regeneration and nerve spreading after injuries of the nerve tissue.

5) To what extent do events occurring during regeneration re semble those seen in development? Questions like these remain open, particularly in relation to the mammalian central nervous system and to the effects of lesions or disease. The first chapters of this volume are concerned primarily with normal and abnormal development of the nervous system. New concepts have emerged over the past few years as a result of experiments made on the development of the higher nervous system in mammals. Thus, the principles of cell death, competition, selective retraction of specific processes, and the effects of abnormalities on the development of the rest of the system have now been extensively investigated. In addition, considerable information is available about biochemical changes during normal and abnormal development in the human. At the other end of the scale, in invertebrates it is now possible to follow cell lineage and to define the origin and fate of a sin gle neuron of known function together with its processes. While an understanding of development is clearly important for studying basic mechanisms of repair and regeneration, one cannot expect the processes to be identical or even comparable in the two situations. For example, cell migration, guidance by radial glial fibers, selective cell death, and the critical periods for competition, sprouting, and retraction observed in the visual system can hardly playa part in repair.

This book is the result of the 20th International Summer School in Brain Research, organized in August 1997 in Amsterdam, by the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. It is the first book that provides a complete overview of the field of neurodegeneration and regeneration including spinal cord injury, neurodegenerative diseases and therapy. Divided into five sections, the first two sections give an overview of fundamental research on nerve cell death, neuronal survival, neurite outgrowth and guidance. Extensive attention is given to the role of neurotrophins, their receptor tyrosine kinases and cell-adhesion molecules in development and regeneration of the nervous system. The third section of the book is devoted to research involving human neurodegenerative diseases and emerging treatment strategies. Section four focusses on recent advances in the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases along with prion diseases. Novel insights into the neuropathological hallmarks of these diseases, as well as into transgenic animal models, the involvement of environmental factors, and genomic and mRNA changes that can cause neurodegeneration. The final section of this volume reveals recent developments in the use of cell and gene therapy to treat neurodegenerative disease and lesion-related deficits. Implantation of genetically modified cells, direct gene transfer with viral vectors and the first clinical trials with encapsulated genetically modified cells in patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral scelerosis are examples of new therapeutic strategies treating neurodegenerative diseases. The book is of particular interest to departments of neuroscience, neurological clinics and departments, the pharmalogical industry and medical libraries.

Despite enormous advances made in the development of external effector prosthetics over the last quarter century, significant questions remain, especially those concerning signal degradation that occurs with chronically implanted neuroelectrodes. Offering contributions from pioneering researchers in neuroprosthetics and tissue repair, Indwel

This book provides current information about the three areas mentioned in the title: Neuronal Migration and Development, Degenerative Brain Diseases, and Neural Plasticity and Regeneration. The chapters about brain development examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which neurons are generated from the ventricular zone in the forebrain and migrate to their destinations in the cerebral cortext. This description of cortical development also includes a discussions of the Cajal-Retzius cell. Another chapter provides insight about the development of another forebrain region, the hypothalamus. The remaining chapters of this section examine the clinical relevance of brain development in certain disease states in humans: neural tube defects and the normal and abnormal development of human electroencephalographic recordings during the first year of age.The second section on degenerative disorders of the brain begins wtih details about the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia niger and their loss in Parkinson's disease. Two subsequent chapters describe changes in brain aging, including changes in the numbers of myelinated axons. Other chapters in this section describe important cellular and molecular changes found in Alzheimer's disease and human epilepsy. Together, these chapters summarize much of our current knowledge about the major molecular and cellular changes found in several degenerative diseases of the brain.The last section addresses the issues of brain plasticity and regeneration in the adult brain and begins with a chapter on how the brain's own stem cells provide newly generated neurons to the hippocampal dentate gyrus and how these neurons become integrated into neural circuitry. The following two chapters examine some of the neuroplastic changes that take place in motor and sensory cortices of awake behaving primates. The concluding two chapters address the issue of regeneration in the injured spinal cord and the factors that may contribute to its success.

In two freestanding volumes, the Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation provides comprehensive coverage of the science and practice of neurological rehabilitation. Revised throughout, bringing the book fully up to date, this volume, Neural Repair and Plasticity, covers the basic sciences relevant to recovery of function following injury to the nervous system, reviewing anatomical and physiological plasticity in the normal central nervous system, mechanisms of neuronal death, axonal regeneration, stem cell biology, and research strategies targeted at axon regeneration and neuron replacement. New chapters have been added covering pathophysiology and plasticity in cerebral palsy, stem cell therapies for brain disorders and neurotrophin repair of spinal cord damage, along with numerous others. Edited and written by leading international authorities, it is an essential resource for neuroscientists and provides a foundation for the work of clinical rehabilitation professionals.