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
Human Endogenous Retrovirus-W influence the expression of HERV-W. Through qPCR methods and infection of cells with influenza and human herpes simplex 1 it was found that HERV-W has a heighted expression in a cell-specific manner when infected but no mechanism was revealed. Also, when these cells are placed in stressful environments such as serum deprivation similar and increased expression of HERV-W is also recorded. This suggests that HERV-W is modulated by environmental effects. Another study also infected cells with influenza to show that this virus can transactivate HERV-W elements. Influenza produces Glial Cells missing 1 (GCM1) that can act as an enhancer to