Nurse C A, Macintyre L, Diamond J
Neuroscience. 1984 Feb;11(2):521-33. doi: 10.1016/0306-4522(84)90042-3.
By using the fluorescent dye quinacrine as a marker for the Merkel cells in rat touch domes we have shown that denervation results in a progressive reduction in the number of these cells to a level that remains relatively constant at about 40% of that present at the time of denervation. The time-course of quinacrine fluorescent cell changes after denervation could be described by assuming that (i) there are two populations of quinacrine fluorescent cells, one labile and the other stable, and (ii) the labile population is the one most sensitive to denervation and disappears exponentially with a half-time of ca 10 days. It appeared that this time-course of decay of the labile quinacrine fluorescent cells was the same whether the denervation was performed during the period of postnatal development studied (at 7 and 14 days), when normally Merkel cells are rapidly added to the dome, or later (at 35 and 60 days) when the adult population is virtually established. Correlative electron microscopic studies confirmed that quinacrine fluorescent cell counts reflect fairly accurately the Merkel cell population in denervated domes. These quantitative findings based on the use of quinacrine to visualize the entire Merkel cell population of touch domes show that the normal development and maintenance of these cells are trophically dependent on sensory nerves, although a subpopulation may persist even in long-term denervated domes. In addition, the similarity of the first order rate constant for the decay of quinacrine fluorescent cells after denervation and for the normal generation of quinacrine fluorescent cells suggests that the labile Merkel cell population is one that turns over continuously in the normally innervated touch dome.
通过使用荧光染料喹吖因作为大鼠触盘默克尔细胞的标记物，我们发现去神经支配会导致这些细胞数量逐渐减少，减少到一个相对稳定的水平，约为去神经支配时细胞数量的40%。去神经支配后喹吖因荧光细胞变化的时间进程可以通过以下假设来描述：（i）存在两类喹吖因荧光细胞，一类不稳定，另一类稳定；（ii）不稳定的细胞群对去神经支配最为敏感，以约10天的半衰期呈指数级消失。结果表明，无论去神经支配是在研究的出生后发育阶段（7天和14天）进行，此时默克尔细胞通常会迅速添加到触盘中，还是在后期（35天和60天）进行，此时成年细胞群基本形成，不稳定的喹吖因荧光细胞的这种衰减时间进程都是相同的。相关的电子显微镜研究证实，喹吖因荧光细胞计数相当准确地反映了去神经支配触盘中的默克尔细胞群。这些基于使用喹吖因可视化触盘整个默克尔细胞群的定量研究结果表明，这些细胞的正常发育和维持在营养上依赖于感觉神经，尽管即使在长期去神经支配的触盘中，也可能有一个亚群持续存在。此外，去神经支配后喹吖因荧光细胞衰减的一级速率常数与喹吖因荧光细胞正常生成的一级速率常数相似，这表明不稳定的默克尔细胞群是在正常神经支配的触盘中不断更新的细胞群。
