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Identification of different types of spinal afferent nerve endings that encode noxious and innocuous stimuli in the large intestine using a novel anterograde tracing technique.

ABSTRACT: In mammals, sensory stimuli in visceral organs, including those that underlie pain perception, are detected by spinal afferent neurons, whose cell bodies lie in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). One of the major challenges in visceral organs has been how to identify the different types of nerve endings of spinal afferents that transduce sensory stimuli into action potentials. The reason why spinal afferent nerve endings have been so challenging to identify is because no techniques have been available, until now, that can selectively label only spinal afferents, in high resolution. We have utilized an anterograde tracing technique, recently developed in our laboratory, which facilitates selective labeling of only spinal afferent axons and their nerve endings in visceral organs. Mice were anesthetized, lumbosacral DRGs surgically exposed, then injected with dextran-amine. Seven days post-surgery, the large intestine was removed. The characteristics of thirteen types of spinal afferent nerve endings were identified in detail. The greatest proportion of nerve endings was in submucosa (32%), circular muscle (25%) and myenteric ganglia (22%). Two morphologically distinct classes innervated myenteric ganglia. These were most commonly a novel class of intraganglionic varicose endings (IGVEs) and occasionally rectal intraganglionic laminar endings (rIGLEs). Three distinct classes of varicose nerve endings were found to innervate the submucosa and circular muscle, while one class innervated internodal strands, blood vessels, crypts of lieberkuhn, the mucosa and the longitudinal muscle. Distinct populations of sensory endings were CGRP-positive. We present the first complete characterization of the different types of spinal afferent nerve endings in a mammalian visceral organ. The findings reveal an unexpectedly complex array of different types of primary afferent endings that innervate specific layers of the large intestine. Some of the novel classes of nerve endings identified must underlie the transduction of noxious and/or innocuous stimuli from the large intestine.

SUBMITTER: Spencer NJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4226564 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Identification of different types of spinal afferent nerve endings that encode noxious and innocuous stimuli in the large intestine using a novel anterograde tracing technique.

Spencer Nick J NJ Kyloh Melinda M Duffield Michael M

PloS one 20141110 11

In mammals, sensory stimuli in visceral organs, including those that underlie pain perception, are detected by spinal afferent neurons, whose cell bodies lie in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). One of the major challenges in visceral organs has been how to identify the different types of nerve endings of spinal afferents that transduce sensory stimuli into action potentials. The reason why spinal afferent nerve endings have been so challenging to identify is because no techniques have been available, ...[more]

PMID: 25383884

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Project description:Spinal afferent neurons play a major role in detecting noxious and innocuous stimuli from visceral organs, such as the gastrointestinal tract. However, all our understanding about spinal afferents has been obtained from recordings of spinal afferent axons, or cell bodies that lie outside the gut wall, or peripheral organ they innervate. No recordings have been made directly from spinal afferent nerve endings, which is where sensory transduction occurs. We developed a preparation whereby recordings could be made from rectal afferent nerve endings in the colon, to characterize mechanisms underlying sensory transduction. Dorsal root ganglia (L6-S2) were removed from mice, whilst retaining neural continuity with the colon. Fluo-4-AM was used to record from rectal afferent nerve endings in myenteric ganglia and circular muscle at 36°C. In slack (unstretched) preparations of colon, no calcium transients were recorded from spinal afferent endings. However, in response to a maintained increase in circumferential diameter, a maintained discharge of calcium transients occurred simultaneously in multiple discrete varicosities along single axons of rectal afferents in myenteric ganglia and circular muscle. Stretch-activated calcium transients were resistant to hexamethonium and nifedipine, but were abolished by tetrodotoxin, CPA, BAPTA-AM, cobalt, gadolinium, or replacement of extracellular Na(+) with NMDG. In summary, we present a novel preparation in which stretch-activated firing of spinal afferent nerve endings can be recorded, using calcium imaging. We show that circumferential stretch of the colon activates a maintained discharge of calcium transients simultaneously in varicosities along single rectal afferent endings in myenteric ganglia and circular muscle. Non-selective cation channels, TTX-sensitive Na(+) channels and both extracellular calcium influx and intracellular Ca(2+) stores are required for stretch-activated calcium transients in rectal afferent endings.

Dataset Information

Identification of different types of spinal afferent nerve endings that encode noxious and innocuous stimuli in the large intestine using a novel anterograde tracing technique.

Publications

Identification of different types of spinal afferent nerve endings that encode noxious and innocuous stimuli in the large intestine using a novel anterograde tracing technique.

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