Dora K. Agbas, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor
Jozsef Attila University, Szeged, Hungary, 1989

Research Interests

Innervation to reproductive tissues is modulated by estrogen induced changes in the target tissue.  Cyclical change in estrogen levels cause cyclical pruning and regeneration of sympathetic axons innervating uterine smooth muscle while sensory populations remain unaffected. Our research shows that estrogen induces target derived factors, which lead to sympathetic axon degeneration in vivo and in different in vitro culture systems. We have shown that in estrogen treated myometrial smooth muscle BDNF and neurotrimin expression increases. Both of these factors have negative effect on sympathetic outgrowth. On the other hand while BDNF adversely effects sensory nerve populations, neurotrimin is an inductive factor for these fibers. Therefore we postulated that these 2 factors can lead to selective pruning of the innervating sympathetic fibers while sensory ones are not sensitive to estrogen in this tissue.
With my research I try to tease out which molecular mechanisms are initiated by factors leading to nerve degeneration. I focus on cytoskeletal and mitochondrial changes occurring in sympathetic neurites upon neurite selective treatment using Campenot and microfluidic compartmental culture systems.