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NEUROSCIENCE |
1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Dental School
2 Program in Neuroscience
3 Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Medical School, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA
Primary afferent neurons are functionally heterogeneous. To determine whether this functional heterogeneity reflects, in part, heterogeneity in the regulation of the concentration of intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i), the magnitude and decay of evoked Ca2+ transients were assessed in subpopulations of dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons with voltage clamp and fura-2 ratiometric imaging. To determine whether differences in evoked Ca2+ transients among subpopulations of DRG neurons reflected differences in the contribution of Ca2+ regulatory mechanisms, pharmacological techniques were employed to assess the contribution of influx, efflux, release and uptake pathways. Subpopulations of DRG neurons were defined by cell body size, binding of the plant lectin IB4 and responsiveness to the algogenic compound capsaicin (CAP). Ca2+ transients were evoked with 30 mM K+ or voltage steps to 0 mV. There were marked differences between subpopulations of neurons with respect to both the magnitude and decay of the Ca2+ transient, with the largest and most slowly decaying Ca2+ transients in small-diameter, IB4-positive, CAP-responsive neurons. The smallest and most rapidly decaying transients were in large-diameter, IB4-negative and CAP-unresponsive DRG neurons. These differences were not due to a differential distribution of voltage-gated Ca2+ currents. However, these differences did appear to reflect a differential contribution of other influx, efflux, release and uptake mechanisms between subpopulations of neurons. These results suggest that electrical activity in subpopulations of DRG neurons will have a differential influence on Ca2+-regulated phenomena such as spike adaptation, transmitter release and gene transcription. Significantly more activity should be required in large-diameter non-nociceptive afferents than in small-diameter nociceptive afferents to have a comparable influence on these processes.
(Received 3 July 2006;
accepted after revision 24 August 2006;
first published online 31 August 2006)
Corresponding author M. S. Gold: Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Maryland Dental School, 666 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. Email: mgold{at}umaryland.edu
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