Measurement of Nerve Growth Factor Serum Concentration in a Psychologically Stressful Situation in Men

Abstract

Psychologically stressful events have been reported to elevate nerve growth factor (NGF) serum concentrations. NGF and cortisol serum concentrations were measured in 20 healthy male volunteers before (3 p.m.) and after (5 p.m.) an academic oral presentation and on a control day. Cortisol showed a significant overall change (p=0.001), i.e. cortisol serum concentrations were increased on the lecture day at 3 p.m. (p=0.007; 155%) and at 5 p.m. (p=0.001; 175%) as compared with the control day. In contrast to cortisol no significant differences among the four serum NGF measurements was detected (Chi-quadrat 2.94, df=3, p=0.401), i.e. the NGF serum concentrations remained unchanged on the lecture day at 3 p.m. (p=0.279) and at 5 p.m. (p=0.627) as compared with the control day. We conclude that NGF serum levels do not change during acute stress, at least after this type of stressor.

Serum Concentrations of Nerve Growth Factor and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Depressed Patients before and after Antidepressant Treatment

“…To detect small scale correlations between two equally complex systems such as the neurotrophin and HPA axis systems, larger patient samples will certainly be needed. As for NGF, earlier reports supported the notion that stress either does not infl uence [32] or increases NGF in human serum [1] as well as in the rodent brain [14] . Lately, there have been studies linking stress to decreased expression of neurotrophic factors such as NGF in rat hippocampus and frontal cortex, respectively [48,52,53] .…”

“…We calculated the mean of six saliva cortisol concentrations to estimate morning and afternoon HPA system activity before and after treatment. Serum NGF was measured by a specifi c and highly sensitive fl uorometric two-site ELISA as described previously [20,21,32,56] . This assay has a detection limit of 0.3 pg / mL serum NGF, the coeffi cients of inter-and intra-assay variation are 24.5 and 8.8 % , respectively.…”

Effects of escitalopram on the regulation of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor protein levels in a rat model of chronic stress

“…There are also inconsistent data on stress-dependent alterations of serum NGF in humans, which has been revealed to be increased (Aloe et al, 1994) or unchanged (Lang et al, 2004a). Both of those studies studies investigated NGF serum levels in different forms of acute stress, whereas the present study uses a chronic stress treatment in which no changes in NGF serum concentrations can be seen.…”

“…Because alteration of NGF and BDNF blood levels after stress have been controversial (Aloe et al, 1994;Karege et al, 2002;Lang et al, 2004a;Lommatzsch et al, 2006;Ziegenhorn et al, 2007), serum NGF and BDNF concentrations were determinated by ELISA. There was no significant difference in any of the neuro- Fig.…”

Probing the Effects of Stress Mediators on the Human Hair Follicle

“…Alongside substance P, nerve growth factor (NGF) has recently been described as a stress-associated growth factor 4,18 and is one of the key catagen-inducing factors involved in stress-mediated hair growth inhibition in the mouse. 6 This neurotrophin does not only maintain and enhance substance P ϩ cutaneous innervation, but it also serves as a potent epitheliotrophin in murine and human keratinocytes and receives increasing attention as a promoter of neurogenic inflammation.…”