Conversely, in situ hybridization of the spinal cord and cerebral cortex for Cntf and Cntfr-α in postmortem tissues revealed no Cntf mRNA expression in either region, and that Cntfr-α was expressed only in lower motor neurons of ALS patients (Duberley et al., 1995). The gene discussed is CNTFR; the disease is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.