Functional activity of TrkB mAbs in the primary cortico-striatal neuronal co-culture system.

<p>Rat primary cortico-striatal co-cultures were stimulated with BDNF, mAb 38B8 and mAb 29D7 and profiled by (A) western blot; agonists tested at 10 nM over the indicated incubation times using non-transfected co-cultures; or (B) mHTT-induced co-culture protocol over the indicated concentration range, as described in the Materials and Methods. For western blot, lysates were prepared and run on SDS-PAGE gels and transferred to membranes that were then hybridized to the corresponding primary antibodies, as described in the Methods and Materials. For mHTT-induced co-culture assay, % Rescue (Normalized to in-plate controls; 0.22 nM BDNF (100% Rescue) and vehicle (0% Rescue)) values were plotted for striatal neurons over the indicated concentrations of each ligand (n = 6 ± SD for each data point). Data demonstrates activation of TrkB phosphorylation signal transduction cascade and rescue of mHTT-induced neuronal toxicity by TrkB mAbs.