Spencer Nick J, Zagorodnyuk Vladimir, Brookes Simon J, Hibberd Tim
Discipline of Human Physiology and Centre for Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Discipline of Human Physiology and Centre for Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol. 2016 Dec 1;311(6):G1056-G1063. doi: 10.1152/ajpgi.00319.2016. Epub 2016 Nov 17.
Spinal afferent neurons play a major role in detection and transduction of painful stimuli from internal (visceral) organs. Recent technical advances have made it possible to visualize the endings of spinal afferent axons in visceral organs. Although it is well known that the sensory nerve cell bodies of spinal afferents reside within dorsal root ganglia (DRG), identifying their endings in internal organs has been especially challenging because of a lack of techniques to distinguish them from endings of other extrinsic and intrinsic neurons (sympathetic, parasympathetic, and enteric). We recently developed a surgical approach in live mice that allows selective labeling of spinal afferent axons and their endings, revealing a diverse array of different types of varicose and nonvaricose terminals in visceral organs, particularly the large intestine. In total, 13 different morphological types of endings were distinguished in the mouse distal large intestine, originating from lumbosacral DRG. Interestingly, the stomach, esophagus, bladder, and uterus had less diversity in their types of spinal afferent endings. Taken together, spinal afferent endings (at least in the large intestine) appear to display greater morphological diversity than vagal afferent endings that have previously been extensively studied. We discuss some of the new insights that these findings provide.
脊髓传入神经元在检测和传导来自内部(内脏)器官的疼痛刺激中起主要作用。最近的技术进步使可视化内脏器官中脊髓传入轴突的末梢成为可能。尽管众所周知脊髓传入神经的感觉神经细胞体位于背根神经节(DRG)内,但由于缺乏将它们与其他外在和内在神经元(交感神经、副交感神经和肠神经)的末梢区分开来的技术,识别它们在内脏器官中的末梢一直特别具有挑战性。我们最近在活体小鼠中开发了一种手术方法,可对脊髓传入轴突及其末梢进行选择性标记,揭示了内脏器官(尤其是大肠)中各种不同类型的曲张和非曲张终末。在小鼠远端大肠中总共区分出13种不同形态类型的末梢,它们起源于腰骶部DRG。有趣的是,胃、食管、膀胱和子宫的脊髓传入末梢类型的多样性较低。总体而言,脊髓传入末梢(至少在大肠中)似乎比先前已被广泛研究的迷走传入末梢表现出更大的形态多样性。我们讨论了这些发现提供的一些新见解。