The aim of this study was to investigate immunohistochemicaly the expression levels of neurotrophin receptors TrkA, TrkB, TrkC, p75NTR and phosphorylated forms of JNK (pJNK) and c-Jun (pc-Jun) in serial sections of human astrocytomas of different grade of malignancy. This evidence concerns the gene MAPK8 and astrocytoma (excluding glioblastoma).