The role of TAK1 in neuronal survival

Charles University in Prague Fakulty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Performed at Institute of Pharmacology Department of Molecular Pharmacology Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg Candidate: Jana Prokipová Supervisor in home University: Doc. MUDr. Radomír Hrdina, CSc. Supervisor in external University: Prof. Dr. Markus Schwaninger Title of diploma thesis: The role of TAK1 in neuronal survival Transforming growth factor-β activated kinase-1 (TAK1) is a serine/threonine kinase and it is part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. TAK1 is a key modulator of the transcription factors NF-κB and AP1. Recent studies have shown that TAK1 is essential for the survival of different cell types. Here, we focus on the biological role of TAK1 in neurons in vivo. We used DAB immunohistochemistry to evaluate the effect of TAK1 in neuronal survival. Therefore we compared the number of neurons in TAK1 knockout mice and TAK1fl/fl control mice. However, we did not find any significant difference in the number of neurons between both groups of mice.