Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 105, Issue 50, Pages 20015-20020Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0810801105
Keywords
mechanotransduction; sensory signaling; somatosensation; touch
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation
- Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Sciences
- Sandler Program in Basic Sciences
- National Institutes of Health
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Primary afferent somatosensory neurons mediate our sense of touch in response to changes in ambient pressure. Molecules that detect and transduce thermal stimuli have been recently identified, but mechanisms underlying mechanosensation, particularly in vertebrate organisms, remain enigmatic. Traditionally, mechanically evoked responses in somatosensory neurons have been assessed one cell at a time by recording membrane currents in response to application of focal pressure, suction, or osmotic challenge. Here, we used radial stretch in combination with live-cell calcium imaging to gain a broad overview of mechanosensitive neuronal subpopulations. We found that different stretch intensities activate distinct subsets of sensory neurons as defined by size, molecular markers, or pharmacological attributes. In all subsets, stretchevoked responses required extracellular calcium, indicating that mechanical force triggers calcium influx. This approach extends the repertoire of stimulus paradigms that can be used to examine mechanotransduction in mammalian sensory neurons, facilitating future physiological and pharmacological studies.
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