Ciliary neurotrophic factor

CNTF
Available structures
PDB	Ortholog search: PDBe RCSB
List of PDB id codes
	1CNT
Identifiers
Aliases	CNTF, Hciliary neurotrophic factor
External IDs	OMIM: 118945; MGI: 88439; HomoloGene: 8288; GeneCards: CNTF; OMA:CNTF - orthologs
Gene location (Human)
Chr.	Chromosome 11 (human)
End	58,625,733 bp
Gene location (Mouse)
Chr.	Chromosome 19 (mouse)
End	12,742,996 bp
RNA expression pattern
	Top expressed in
	testicle; ; tibial nerve; ; C1 segment; ; sural nerve; ; gastrocnemius muscle; ; substantia nigra; ; monocyte; ; muscle of thigh; ; olfactory zone of nasal mucosa; ; bone marrow;
	Top expressed in
	lens; ; morula; ; embryo; ; tail of embryo; ; blastocyst; ; salivary gland; ; hair; ; embryo; ; pallidum of neuraxis; ; muscle of thigh;
	More reference expression data
	More reference expression data
Gene ontology
Molecular function	interleukin-6 receptor binding; protein binding; ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor binding; growth factor activity; cytokine activity; protein-containing complex binding;
Cellular component	cytoplasm; CRLF-CLCF1 complex; extracellular region; axon; extracellular space;
Biological process	negative regulation of neuron apoptotic process; cell differentiation; muscle organ morphogenesis; neuron development; regulation of retinal cell programmed cell death; nervous system development; ciliary neurotrophic factor-mediated signaling pathway; multicellular organism development; negative regulation of photoreceptor cell differentiation; positive regulation of gene expression; signal transduction; positive regulation of axon regeneration; positive regulation of cell population proliferation; astrocyte activation; positive regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT protein; growth; regulation of signaling receptor activity; cytokine-mediated signaling pathway;
	Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
	1270
	12803
	ENSG00000242689
	ENSMUSG00000079415
	P26441
	P51642
	NM_000614
	NM_053007; NM_170786
	NP_000605
	NP_740756
	Wikidata
View/Edit Human	View/Edit Mouse

Ciliary neurotrophic factor is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CNTF gene.

The protein encoded by this gene is a polypeptide hormone and neurotrophic factor whose actions have mainly been studied in the nervous system where it promotes neurotransmitter synthesis and neurite outgrowth in certain neural populations including astrocytes. It is a hypothalamic neuropeptide that is a potent survival factor for neurons and oligodendrocytes and may be relevant in reducing tissue destruction during inflammatory attacks. A mutation in this gene, which results in aberrant splicing, leads to ciliary neurotrophic factor deficiency, but this phenotype is not causally related to neurologic disease. In addition to the predominant monocistronic transcript originating from this locus, the gene is also cotranscribed with the upstream ZFP91 gene. Cotranscription from the two loci results in a transcript that contains a complete coding region for the zinc finger protein but lacks a complete coding region for ciliary neurotrophic factor.

CNTF has also been shown to be expressed by cells on the bone surface, and to reduce the activity of bone-forming cells (osteoblasts).