Influence of neurotrophic factors on protein composition during somatic nerve injury and regeneration

Abstract

The quantity of neurotrophic factors and the protein composition of somatic nerve membranes in rats during injury and survival of nerves under the action of clobetasol have been explored. It has been shown that the drug administered intramuscularly produces more pronounced effect on the increase in the level of neurotrophic growth factors and structural proteins responsible for recovery processes than the drug released from hydrogel derived from microbial polysaccharides as well as stabilizes the content of the total protein fraction of damaged somatic nerves. Proteins of the injured neural conductor are less degraded during intramuscular injection of clobetasol probably because of better availability of the drug administered by injection than availability of the drug administered (slow drug release) from hydrogel composite. In addition, an increase in the amount of DNA and some protein fractions indicates that clobetasol is able to participate in an activation of genes associated with remyelination. We suppose that clobetasol can stimulate synthesis of neurotrophic growth factors, thereby triggering phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways that regulate the processes of cytoskeletal reorganization and axonal growth, as well as enhance the rate of synthesis of structural and axonal proteins necessary to restore the functional activity of injured nerve conductors.