TrkA is necessary for the normal development of the murine thymus

Ablation of TrkA function in the immune system causes B cell abnormalities

“…The phenotype observed in the mutant mouse used in our study is less severe than the one observed in the complete TrkA-deficient mice which have thymus abnormalities consistent with organogenesis defects (Garcia-Suarez et al, 2000). Because the difference between these two mutants is mainly the presence (this study) or the absence (Garcia-Suarez et al, 2000) of a fully developed nervous system, it is tempting to speculate that a cross-talk between the immune system and the nervous system is required not only for normal function but also development of the immune system.…”

“…Because the difference between these two mutants is mainly the presence (this study) or the absence (Garcia-Suarez et al, 2000) of a fully developed nervous system, it is tempting to speculate that a cross-talk between the immune system and the nervous system is required not only for normal function but also development of the immune system. Similarly, less severe phenotypes were observed in our mutant compared with those of a transgenic mouse model producing anti-NGF neutralizing antibodies which develops massive cell death in the spleen, skeletal dystrophy and body weight reduction resulting in mouse lethality.…”

“…Evidence for such role was provided by mice lacking NT3 (Ntf3 -Mouse Genome Informatics) and BDNF, which revealed the requirement of these ligands and their receptors for the normal development of the cardiovascular system (Donovan et al, 1996;Donovan et al, 2000;Tessarollo et al, 1997). In addition, neurotrophin functions outside the nervous system have been suggested from phenotypes identified in hair follicles and thymus of neurotrophin and Trk receptor mutant mice (Botchkarev et al, 2004;Garcia-Suarez et al, 2002;Garcia-Suarez et al, 2000). However, one can not exclude that some of these deficits were indirect effects of the severe nervous system defects.…”

p75NTR in the spleen: Age‐dependent changes, effect of NGF and 4‐methylcatechol treatment, and structural changes in p75NTR‐deficient mice

“…Trk receptors also appear to be involved in mediating the in vivo actions of neurotrophins on immune tissues. Thus, although no data about the spleen of Trk-mutant animals are available to date, the thymus of TrkA-deficient mice exhibits a disrupted epithelial cell compartment (García-Suá rez et al, 2000a), whereas that of TrkB-deficient mice shows massive lymphocyte apoptosis (García-Suá rez et al, 2002).…”

“…1998; Aloe et al, 2001), but also other neurotrophins (Maroder et al, 1996;Barouch et al, 2001;Kobayashi and Mizisin, 2001) have been proven to exert a number of effects on immune cells, both in vitro and (to a lesser extent) in vivo: 3) Lymphoid organs of neurotrophin receptor-and NGF-deficient mice exhibit structural and cytological abnormalities (García-Suá rez et al, 2000a, 2002Ruberti et al, 2000).…”