Inflammatory processes in the brain may trigger specific neuroprotective responses in glial cells. Here, we show that bacterial lipopolysaccharide strongly up-regulates glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) mRNA while it down-regulates that of neurturin. Tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) had different effects since it stimulated neurturin expression without enhancing GDNF mRNA. Interestingly, both lipopolysaccharide and TNFα triggered a significant decrease in the expression of the GDNF receptor, GFRα1, in glial cells. While the significance of such down-regulation during inflammatory processes remains to be characterised, the differential regulation of GDNF and neurturin following lipopolysaccharide and TNFα treatments suggest specific neuroprotective responses of glial cells in case of bacterial infection, trauma, transplantation or neurodegenerative diseases.