Glial scar brain and spinal cord. FGF2 has also been shown to increase astrocyte proliferation "in vitro". Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is a cytosolic protein that is not secreted. CNTF has been shown to promote the survival of neuronal cultures "in vitro", and it can also act as a differentiator and trophic factor on glial cells. Further, CNTF has been previously shown to affect the differentiation of glial precursor cells "in vitro"; however, the influence of CNTF in the "in vivo" setting has only recently been determined. Winter "et al." used CNTF over-expressing transgenic mice as well as wildtype controls that had
Perisynaptic schwann cells These proteins are seen in other glial cells such as Myelinating Schwann cells and Neural Crest cells. While the lineage of non-Myelinating Schwann cells is known from neural crest cells, the exact development of PSCs from non-Myelinating Schwann cells is not fully understood. Synaptogenesis is the formation of a synapse and in this case the Neuromuscular Junction is of interest. In this section, the focus is on the development of the NMJ from the outgrowth of axons during development. As mentioned in the development section, Schwann cell precursors accompany growing axons as they reach their associated muscles. It is now