Biology of glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor

Neurotrophic factors are cytokines that promote the differentiation, development, growth, maintenance and regeneration of neurons. In 1993, glial cell line-derived-neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was identified as the first member of a new family of cytokines in the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily [1]. Over the past five years, three additional members of the GDNF family have been isolated, cloned and sequenced: neuturin [2], persephin [3] and artemin [4]. The present review will concentrate on GDNF, the most extensively studied of the four proteins. The known properties of the other three trophic factors and their comparison to GDNF will be discussed at the end of the chapter. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.