Regeneron, Bristol-Myers Squibb other research news

REGN and collaborators used mice engineered to lack BDNF to show that the factor may play a role in the control of breathing. The mutant mice died within two to three weeks after birth, the researchers reported in The Journal of Neuroscience.

BDNF knockout mice lack some of a specific group of neurons that help control breathing. The loss of more than half of the dopamine-containing neurons in the nodose-petrosal ganglion, found in the mice, accompanied a prolongation of the irregular breathing that is normally found in newborns. In particular, the animals are unable to respond to lowered blood oxygen. The dopamine neurons in the ganglion are thought to carry signals from the carotid body, an oxygen-sensing site, to the brainstem. ...