Lumpkin Ellen A, Caterina Michael J
Departments of Neuroscience, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics and Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Nature. 2007 Feb 22;445(7130):858-65. doi: 10.1038/nature05662.
Sensory neurons innervating the skin encode the familiar sensations of temperature, touch and pain. An explosion of progress has revealed unanticipated cellular and molecular complexity in these senses. It is now clear that perception of a single stimulus, such as heat, requires several transduction mechanisms. Conversely, a given protein may contribute to multiple senses, such as heat and touch. Recent studies have also led to the surprising insight that skin cells might transduce temperature and touch. To break the code underlying somatosensation, we must therefore understand how the skin's sensory functions are divided among signalling molecules and cell types.
支配皮肤的感觉神经元编码着人们所熟悉的温度、触觉和疼痛感觉。大量的研究进展揭示了这些感觉中意想不到的细胞和分子复杂性。现在很清楚的是，对单一刺激（如热）的感知需要多种转导机制。相反，一种特定的蛋白质可能对多种感觉（如热和触觉）都有作用。最近的研究还带来了一个惊人的见解，即皮肤细胞可能转导温度和触觉。因此，为了破解躯体感觉的密码，我们必须了解皮肤的感觉功能是如何在信号分子和细胞类型之间进行分配的。
