Department of Physiology, University of Basel, Switzerland; 2Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Biocenter, University of Basel, Switzerland; 3Xerion Pharmaceuticals, Martinsried, Germany; 4Department of Medicine, Section Pathophysiology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany; 5Department of Biochemistry, Christian Albrechts University of Kiel, Germany Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) displays neurotrophic activities on motor neurons and neural cell populations both in vivo and in vitro. .