Ikeda Ryo, Gu Jianguo G
Department of Anesthesiology, The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 231 Albert Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0531, USA; Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan.
Department of Anesthesiology, The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 231 Albert Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0531, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2014 Nov 7;583:210-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.05.055. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
We have recently shown that Merkel cells transduce tactile stimuli via Piezo2 channels to initiate the sense of touch. Here we performed patch-clamp recordings to assess single channel activity on the membranes of Merkel cells in whisker hair follicles. Under the cell-attached configuration, most Merkel cell membrane patches showed large outward unitary currents with single channel conductance being ∼200pS. The outward unitary currents were not affected by negative pressures up to 150mmHg when applied to the membrane patches. The application of negative pressures up to 190mmHg also could not directly elicit any inward unitary current in the membrane patches. However, after establishing the whole-cell configuration, mechanically activated currents (MA) that resembled Piezo2 currents could be elicited by membrane displacements in every Merkel cell tested. While the MA current decayed rapidly, a small steady-state current component with significant channel noise could be observed. Applications of stationary and non-stationary fluctuation analyses to the MA currents yielded single channel conductance of 32.5±3.8 and 54.0±5.3pS, respectively. The lack of mechanical responses under the cell-attached configuration and the existence of Piezo2 MA currents under the whole-cell configuration raised a possibility that Piezo2 channels are preferentially located on Merkel cell processes, the membrane domains inaccessible by recording electrodes.
我们最近发现,默克尔细胞通过Piezo2通道传导触觉刺激以启动触觉。在此,我们进行了膜片钳记录,以评估触须毛囊中默克尔细胞膜上的单通道活性。在细胞贴附配置下,大多数默克尔细胞膜片显示出大的外向单通道电流,单通道电导约为200pS。当对膜片施加高达150mmHg的负压时,外向单通道电流不受影响。施加高达190mmHg的负压也不能直接在膜片中引发任何内向单通道电流。然而,在建立全细胞配置后,在每个测试的默克尔细胞中,膜位移可引发类似于Piezo2电流的机械激活电流(MA)。虽然MA电流迅速衰减,但可以观察到一个具有明显通道噪声的小稳态电流成分。对MA电流进行静态和非静态波动分析,得到的单通道电导分别为32.5±3.8和54.0±5.3pS。细胞贴附配置下缺乏机械反应以及全细胞配置下存在Piezo2 MA电流,这增加了一种可能性,即Piezo2通道优先位于默克尔细胞突起上,而记录电极无法触及这些膜区域。