Somatostatin-expressing parafacial neurons are CO₂/H⁺ sensitive and regulate baseline breathing.

ABSTRACT: Glutamatergic neurons in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) function as respiratory chemoreceptors by regulating breathing in response to tissue CO₂/H⁺. The RTN and greater parafacial region may also function as a chemosensing network composed of CO₂/H⁺-sensitive excitatory and inhibitory synaptic interactions. In the context of disease, we showed that loss of inhibitory neural activity in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome disinhibited RTN chemoreceptors and destabilized breathing (Kuo et al., 2019). Despite this, contributions of parafacial inhibitory neurons to control of breathing are unknown, and synaptic properties of RTN neurons have not been characterized. Here, we show the parafacial region contains a limited diversity of inhibitory neurons

SUBMITTER: Cleary CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8169115 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature