Identification of different types of spinal afferent nerve endings that encode noxious and innocuous stimuli in the large intestine using a novel anterograde tracing technique.

ABSTRACT: In mammals, sensory stimuli in visceral organs, including those that underlie pain perception, are detected by spinal afferent neurons, whose cell bodies lie in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). One of the major challenges in visceral organs has been how to identify the different types of nerve endings of spinal afferents that transduce sensory stimuli into action potentials. The reason why spinal afferent nerve endings have been so challenging to identify is because no techniques have been available, until now, that can selectively label only spinal afferents, in high resolution. We have utilized an anterograde tracing technique, recently developed in our laboratory, which facilitates selective labeling of only spinal afferent axons and their nerve endings in visceral organs. Mice were anestheti

SUBMITTER: Spencer NJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4226564 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature