The Immunohistochemical Study On The Expression Of Polypeptide Growth Factors In The Spinal Cord Of Adult Monkey

[Objective]: To explore the specific expression of eight kinds of polypeptide growth factors, including NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF in the spinal cord of adult monkey. Furthermore, it' s the first time for us to provide the immunochemistry evidences of these growth factors in the spinal cord of adult monkey for the neuroscience world.[Materials and Methods]: Five healthy adult Rhesus macaques(male) of YunNan, whose mean weight is 6kg or so, have been employed in our experiment. After being anesthesied by muscle injection of Ketamine (0.25 ml/kg), these animals were sacrificed via a way of infusing Zamboni fluid into aorta with the help of aortic cannlation. Then fixed the T8 spinal cord segments taken out from the monkeys with 4% paraformaldehyd reinst for 6h (4℃) . And put them into 20%sucrose-PBS overnight, lastly, the spinal cord were made into frozen sections in 20 μm thickness. Next, anti-NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF serum were applied respectively with the immunohistochemical ABC method to detect the distribution of these growth factors in the spinal cord sections of adult monkey (These sections were all selected randomly.) At last, the distribution of these growth factors in the spinal cord were all observed with the help of olympus light microscope. [Results]: 1. The immunoreactivities for NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF-like could be seen in spinal motoneurons of the adult monkey. 2. The NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF-likeimmunoreactivities could also be seen in spinal sensory neurons of the adult monkey. 3. The positive reaction of BDNF, NT-3 and GDNF could be observed in Clarke neurons of the adult monkey . 4. The distribution of NGF, BDNF, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF could be detected in the Lissauer tract of the adult monkey, as a result, the positive staining of Lissauer tract looked like hairbrush . 5. The positive varicosities of NGF, BDNF and GDNF could be seen in the spinal lamina I/II of the adult monkey. 6. The NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF-like immunoreactivities could be found in the spinal central canal of the adult monkey.[Conclusions]: In this study, we provide the first morphological report that there exists the expression of such polypeptide growth factors as NGF, BDNF, NT-3, NT-4, GDNF, bFGF, IGF and EGF in the spinal cord of adult monkey. The spatial distributions of these growth factors in the adult monkey's spinal cord showed both overlapping and discrepancy to some extent. This indicated that polypeptide growth factors may play multifunctional and complex roles in the spinal cord of adult monkey.