Neurotrophin
| Neurotrophin | |||||||||
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| Identifiers | |||||||||
| Symbol | NGF | ||||||||
| Pfam | PF00243 | ||||||||
| InterPro | IPR002072 | ||||||||
| PROSITE | PDOC00221 | ||||||||
| SCOP | 1bet | ||||||||
| SUPERFAMILY | 1bet | ||||||||
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| Available protein structures: | |
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| Pfam | structures |
| PDB | RCSB PDB; PDBe; PDBj |
| PDBsum | structure summary |
Neurotrophins are a family of proteins that induce the survival, development, and function of neurons.
They belong to a class of growth factors, secreted proteins that are capable of signaling particular cells to survive, differentiate, or grow. Growth factors such as neurotrophins that promote the survival of neurons are known as neurotrophic factors. Neurotrophic factors are secreted by target tissue and act by preventing the associated neuron from initiating programmed cell death - thus allowing the neurons to survive. Neurotrophins also induce differentiation of progenitor cells, to form neurons.
Although the vast majority of neurons in the mammalian brain are formed prenatally, parts of the adult brain (for example, the hippocampus) retain the ability to grow new neurons from neural stem cells, a process known as neurogenesis.Neurotrophins are chemicals that help to stimulate and control neurogenesis.
According to the United States National Library of Medicine's medical subject headings, the term neurotrophin may be used as a synonym for neurotrophic factor, but the term neurotrophin is more generally reserved for four structurally related factors: nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and neurotrophin-4 (NT-4). The term neurotrophic factor generally refers to these four neurotrophins, the GDNF family of ligands, and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), among other biomolecules. Neurotrophin-6 and neurotrophin-7 also exist but are only found in zebrafish.
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