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A vagal reflex evoked by airway closure

ABSTRACT: Airway integrity must be continuously maintained throughout life. Sensory neurons guard against airway obstruction and on a moment-by-moment basis, enact vital reflexes to maintain respiratory function. Decreased lung capacity is common and life-threatening across many respiratory diseases, and lung collapse can be acutely evoked by chest wall trauma, pneumothorax, or airway compression. Here, we characterize a neuronal reflex of the vagus nerve evoked by airway closure that leads to gasping. In vivo vagal ganglion imaging revealed dedicated sensory neurons that detect airway compression but not airway stretch. Vagal neurons expressing PVALB mediate airway closure responses, and innervate clusters of lung epithelial cells called neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs). Stimulating NEBs or vagal PVALB neurons evoked gasping in the absence of airway threats, while ablating NEBs or vagal PVALB neurons eliminated gasping to airway closure. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed that NEBs uniformly express the mechanoreceptor PIEZO2, and targeted knockout of PIEZO2 in NEBs also eliminated responses to airway closure. NEBs are dispensable for the Hering-Breuer inspiratory reflex, indicating that discrete terminal structures detect airway closure and inflation. Like Merkel cells involved in touch sensation, NEBs are PIEZO2-expressing epithelial cells, and moreover, are critical for an aspect of lung mechanosensation. These findings expand our understanding of neuronal diversity in the airways, and reveal a dedicated vagal pathway that detects airway closure to help preserve respiratory function.

ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus

PROVIDER: GSE252735 | GEO | 2024/03/06

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:The gut-brain axis, a reciprocal interaction between the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral intestinal functions, is conceptually feasible from recent clinical and experimental evidence showing mutual interactions between the CNS and gut microbiota that are closely associated with the bidirectional effects of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and CNS disorders. Despite recent advances in our understanding of neuroimmune interactions, it remains unclear how the gut and brain communicate to maintain gut immune homeostasis, including induction and maintenance of peripheral regulatory T cells (pTregs) and what environmental cues prompt the host to protect host from development of IBDs. Here, we report a novel liver-brain-gut neural arc that ensures proper differentiation and maintenance of peripheral regulatory T cells (pTregs) in the gut. The hepatic vagal sensory afferents were responsible for indirectly sensing the gut microenvironment and relaying the sensory inputs to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) of the brainstem, and ultimately to the vagal parasympathetic nerves and enteric neurons. Surgical and chemical perturbation of the vagal sensory afferents at the hepatic afferent level significantly impaired colonic pTregs, which was attributed to impairment of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) expression and retinoic acid (RA) synthesis by intestinal antigen-presenting cells (APCs). Muscarinic Ach receptor (mAChR) activation directly induced ALDH gene expression both in human and mouse colonic APCs, whereas genetic ablation of mAChRs abolished APC excitement in vitro. Disruption of left vagal sensory afferents from the liver to the brainstem in colitis models reduced the colonic pTreg pool, resulting in increased susceptibility to colitis. These results demonstrate that the novel vago-vagal liver-brain-gut reflex arc tunes the number of pTregs and maintains the gut homeostasis. Intervening in this autonomic feedback feed-forward system could help develop new therapeutic strategies to treat or prevent immunological disorders of the gut.

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A vagal reflex evoked by airway closure

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