Neurotrophin Receptor Gene Expression

This chapter presents the data that supports the concept of two distinct NGF (nerve growth factor) receptors and focuses on genes that encode these receptors, temporal and spatial patterns of expression in the central nervous system, and the functional relevance of these different receptor subtypes. NGF and its related ligands bind to a high-affinity receptor that contains intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity. The tyrosine kinase family of proteins is a large group of proteins, of which the cell surface receptors constitute a subgrouping. Ligands for these cell surface receptors, which included insulin, insulin-like growth factor I, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and fibroblast growth factor, now include the NGF family of neurotrophic peptides.