Role for basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) in tyrosine kinase (TrkB) expression in the early development and innervation of the auditory receptor: in vitro and in situ studies.

A previous study showed that basic fibroblast growth factor (FGF-2) promotes the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) on migration and neurite outgrowth from the cochleovestibular ganglion (CVG). This suggests that FGF-2 may up-regulate the receptor for BDNF. Thus we have examined TrkB expression during CVG formation and otic innervation in vitro and in the chicken embryo using immunohistochemistry. Following anatomical staging according to Hamburger-Hamilton, results were compared with mRNA expression in vitro using in situ hybridization. In the embryo at stage 16 (E2+) clusters of either lightly stained or immunonegative cells occurred within the otocyst and among those migrating to the CVG. By stage 22 (E3.5), immunostaining was concentrated in the CVG perikarya and invaded the processes growing into the otic epithelium but not into the rhombencephalon. Subsequently TrkB expression decreased in the perikarya and became localized in the leading processes of the fibers invading the epithelium and in the structures participating in synapse formation with the hair cells. In vitro there was moderate immunostaining and modest in situ hybridization for trkB in the neuroblasts migrating from the otocyst under control conditions. In contrast, neuroblasts previously exposed to FGF-2 exhibited accelerated migration and differentiation, with increased trkB mRNA expression. Morphological differentiation was associated with more intense immunostaining of processes than cell bodies. Evidently TrkB shifts its expression sequentially from sites engaged in migration, ganglion cell differentiation, axonal outgrowth, epithelial innervation, and synapse formation. FGF-2 may promote the role of BDNF in these developmental events by upregulating the TrkB receptor. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.