Co-expression of P2X receptor subunits on rat nodose neurons that bind the isolectin GS-I-B4

C H Hubscher1, J C Petruska, K K Rau

  • 1Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and The Evelyn F. And William L. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Box 100144, FL 32610-0144, USA.

Neuroreport
|October 6, 2001
PubMed

Triple fluorescent histochemistry was used to describe the types of overlap in visceral sensory neurons (nodose ganglion) for the labeling of the isolectin B4 from Griffonia simplicifolia type one (GS-I-B4) and their immunoreactivity (IR) for two of the ATP receptor subunits (P2X1/3 or P2X2/3). The vast majority of nodose neurons expressed GS-I-B4-binding and most of these displayed P2X receptor IR. Most of the P2X-IR was co-expressed on these individual nodose neurons (P2X1/P2X3 or P2X2/P2X3). A very small subpopulation of neurons that were GS-I-B4 negative but P2X positive displayed a very high relative intensity of P2X3-IR. The functional role that these expression patterns play in visceral sensory processing is currently unclear.

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