Publication: Neurotrophin-4 dependency of intraepithelial vagal sensory nerve terminals that selectively contact pulmonary NEBs in mice
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Date
2010
Authors
Oztay, Fusun ; Brouns, Inge ; Pintelon, Isabel ; Raab, Marion ; Neuhuber, Winfried ; Timmermans, Jean Pierre ; Adriaensen, Dirk
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Publisher
Murcia : F. Hernández
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DOI
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info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Description
Abstract
Important physiological functions of
neurotrophins (NTs) in airways and lungs are the early
development, differentiation and maintenance of
peripheral sensory neurons. The main pulmonary
sensory innervation is of vagal origin, with several nerve
fibre populations that selectively contact complex
morphologically well-characterized receptor end-organs,
called neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs). NEBs in mouse
lungs are innervated by at least two separate myelinated
vagal sensory nerve fibre populations, of which the
neurochemical coding is suggestive of a
mechanosensory function. Since neurotrophin-4 (NT-4)
has been especially described to be important for the
maintenance of mechanosensory nerve terminals, the
present study aimed at investigating the NT-4
dependency of the two myelinated vagal sensory nerve
fibre populations innervating mouse pulmonary NEBs.
Multiple immunostaining in 21-day-old and adult
mouse lungs revealed the expression of the NT-4
receptor TrkB on the two different myelinated vagal
sensory nerve fibre populations, i.e., the vesicular
glutamate transporter/calbindin-positive and the P2X2/3-
positive fibres, which selectively contact pulmonary
NEBs.
Examination of the effect of the lack of NT-4 on
these NEB-related nerve fibre populations, by
comparing adult NT-4-/- and wild-type mice, revealed
that in NT-4-/- mice the percentage of NEBs contacted by
P2X2/3+ is reduced by 75%, while the VGLUT+/CB+
population seemed to be unaffected.
This study demonstrated that although mouse pulmonary NEBs are contacted by two distinct TrkB
expressing populations of vagal myelinated afferents,
only one is distinctly reduced in NT-4 deficient mice,
suggesting the involvement of NTs. In view of the
growing evidence for the involvement of NTs in
neuronal plasticity associated with airway diseases,
pulmonary NEBs innervated by NT-sensitive vagal
afferents may play a significant role.
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