The protein F1/protein kinase C module and neurite growth: Potential pathway for facilitating brain transplantation

This chapter describes that regulation of protein kinase C (PKC) substrates such as protein F1, may also prove to be effective in regulating neurite growth, reviews some evidence that protein F1 is identical to pp 46, GAP-43 and B-50, and considers the implications of these new findings for transplantation. PKC is a multifunctional enzyme with a long list of putative physiological substrates. It is important to investigate the relationship between successful brain transplants and PKC and its substrates. If PKC and protein F1 in the transplanted cells play a critical role in facilitating axonal outgrowth in the transplant, then manipulation of gene expression of cells prior to transplantation could prove to be of particular value. Thus, transfection of a given neuron with the cloned gene on a recombinant plasmid offers the possibility of a wider range of cell types from which to select for transplantation.