Administration of anti-c-kit antibody into the cerebrospinal fluid leads to increased cell death in the developing cerebral cortex.

It is generally believed that during development, neurons are usually produced in excess. Cell death occurs in the developing nervous system. The survival of the developing neurons depends on many factors derived from the target sites, of which the neuronal trophic factors are by far the best known. Stem cell factor (SCF) and its receptor, c-kit, is expressed in cells of nervous system during development and adulthood. Although the role of SCF/c-kit in the nervous system is so far not clear, in vitro studies indicate that SCF/c-kit is trophic to certain neurons derived from neural crest and cerebral cortex. In this study the effects of anti-c-kit antibody on cell death in the newborn chick cerebral cortex have been investigated. Injection of anti-c-kit antibody into the cisterna magnum increased the number of cell death and resulted in thinning of the cerebral cortex as compared to that from the control group. It is concluded that SCF/c-kit is essential for cortical progenitor cell survival in the cerebral cortex. Moreover, this method may be applied to the other factors and different CNS regions, allowing identification of factors involved in cell death. It additionally re-emphasizes the importance of further investigations into the potential roles of SCF/c-kit signaling in neurodegenerative diseases.