their dorsal root ganglia (DRG), trigeminal ganglia and superior cervical ganglia. The viability of these mice was poor. The BDNF-knockout mice had losses of a majority of their vestibular ganglia and moderate losses of their DRG, trigeminal ganglia, nodose petrosal ganglia and cochlear ganglia. In addition they also had minor losses of their facial motoneurons located in the CNS. The viability of these mice was moderate. The NT-4-knockout mice had moderate losses of their nodose petrosal ganglia and minor losses of their DRG, trigeminal ganglia and vestibular ganglia. The NT-4-knockout mice also had minor losses of facial motoneurons. These mice were very viable. The NT-3 knockout mice had losses of a majority of their DRG, trigeminal ganglia, cochlear ganglia and superior cervical ganglia and moderate losses of nodose petrosal ganglia and vestibular ganglia. In addition the NT-3-knockout mice had moderate losses of spinal moroneurons. These mice had very poor viability. These results show that the absence of different neurotrophins result in losses of different neuron populations (mainly in the PNS). Furthermore, the absence of the neurotrophin survival signal leads to apoptosis. See also Neurotrophic electrode Neuron Programmed cell death References External links DevBio.com - 'Neurotrophin Receptors: The neurotrophin family consists of four members: nerve growth factor (NGF), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin 3 (NT-3), and neurotrophin 4 (NT-4)' (April 4, 2003) Dr.Koop.com - 'New Clues to Neurological Diseases Discovered: Findings could lead to new treatments, two studies suggest', Steven Reinberg, HealthDay (July 5, 2006) Helsinki.fi - 'Neurotrophic factors' - Neurotrophin-3 image Neurochemistry Neurotrophins Programmed cell death Single-pass transmembrane proteins