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Electrophysiology on Isolated Brainstem-spinal Cord Preparations from Newborn Rodents Allows Neural Respiratory Network Output Recording

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Developmental changes in brainstem neurons regulating lower airway caliber.

Amitai Z Kohn¹, Zana Hoxha, Kannan V Balan

¹Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University, Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.

Pediatric Research

|February 5, 2009

Summary

Postnatal maturation reduces airway neurons and nerve fibers in ferret brains. This developmental change may increase premature infants

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Preparation of Rhythmically-active In Vitro Neonatal Rodent Brainstem-spinal Cord and Thin Slice

Preparation of Rhythmically-active In Vitro Neonatal Rodent Brainstem-spinal Cord and Thin Slice

Published on: March 23, 2019

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Developmental Biology
Respiratory Physiology

Background:

Premature infants face risks of lower airway obstruction.
Maturation of reflex pathways controlling lower airway patency is not well understood.
Postnatal development influences neural control of airway reflexes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate developmental changes in brainstem efferent airway-related vagal preganglionic neurons (AVPNs) and pulmonary afferent fibers during postnatal maturation.
To test the hypothesis that postnatal maturation alters the number and distribution of AVPNs and afferent fibers in the ferret model.

Main Methods:

Ferrets aged 7, 14, 21, and 42 days were used.
Intrapulmonary injection of cholera toxin (CT)-beta subunit as a transganglionic retrograde tracer.
Brainstem processing for dual immunolabeling of CT-beta and choline acetyl transferase (a cholinergic marker).
Analysis of CT-beta-labeled AVPNs in the rostral nucleus ambiguus (rNA) and afferent fiber optical density (OD) in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS).

Main Results:

A significantly higher number of CT-beta-labeled AVPNs was observed in the rNA of the youngest ferrets (7 days) compared to older ages.
All identified efferent AVPNs expressed the cholinergic marker choline acetyl transferase.
The optical density of CT-beta-labeled afferent fibers in the NTS was higher at 7 days compared to 14 days.

Conclusions:

The number of efferent AVPNs and the optical density of afferent fibers decrease during the second postnatal week.
These findings suggest that early postnatal airway injury might impede natural neural remodeling, potentially increasing susceptibility to airway hyperreactivity later in life.