Unconventional receptor neurons in nasal epithelia

描述（由申请人提供）：脊椎动物的鼻上皮细胞在检测我们环境中的化学线索（如与食物、性和非性社会互动、捕食者和危害有关的气味）方面发挥重要作用。一般认为，纤毛受体神经元的主要嗅觉上皮细胞检测主要食物气味和微绒毛受体神经元的犁鼻器，以检测性/社会线索。据说呼吸上皮仅含有三叉神经的游离神经末梢以检测潜在的有害物质;然而，最近的研究以及我们的初步数据表明，鼻上皮的形态和功能更为复杂。我们的初步数据表明，啮齿类动物和人类的主要嗅觉上皮细胞包含的受体细胞，不符合纤毛受体神经元的描述，呼吸上皮细胞包含几种类型的感觉细胞。由于这些细胞以相当大的数量出现（例如，主要嗅上皮中的微绒毛细胞> 5%），它们代表生理相关的群体，其功能可能在化学感觉中起重要作用。根据我的初步数据，我假设，人类和啮齿动物的主要嗅觉上皮细胞包含非常规的细胞，如隐窝嗅觉受体神经元，迄今为止只描述了鱼类和呼吸上皮细胞包含几种类型的孤立的化学感受细胞。本申请的目标是表征这些非常规受体细胞。我的实验旨在获得它们的解剖学和生物化学特征的清晰图像，以便将来进行功能实验。将利用人和啮齿动物鼻组织上成熟的免疫细胞化学和超微结构（扫描和透射电子显微镜）技术来确定这些细胞的神经元特性和形态学特征。总之，这些实验将呈现在鼻上皮细胞中存在的感觉细胞类型的更详细的知识，从而促进其功能的进一步研究。为了了解嗅觉系统的障碍和疾病，如头部创伤或癌症治疗引起的嗅觉丧失，阿尔茨海默氏症或帕金森病，并构思可能的补救措施，对气味检测所涉及的细胞类型的透彻了解是至关重要的。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The nasal epithelia of vertebrates play important roles in the detection of chemical cues in our environment such as odorants related to food, sexual and non-sexual social interaction, predators, and hazards. The common view attributes ciliated receptor neurons to the main olfactory epithelium to detect mainly food odors and microvillus receptor neurons to the vomeronasal organ to detect sexual/social cues. The respiratory epithelium is said to contain only free nerve endings of the trigeminal nerve to detect potentially noxious substances; however, recent studies, as well as our preliminary data, show that morphology and function of the nasal epithelia are more complex. Our preliminary data indicate that the main olfactory epithelium of rodents and humans contains receptor cells that do not match the description of ciliated receptor neurons and that the respiratory epithelium contains several types of sensory cells. As these cells occur in considerable numbers (e.g., microvillus cells in the main olfactory epithelium > 5%), they represent a physiologically relevant population whose function may play an important role in chemosensation. Based on my preliminary data, I hypothesize that the main olfactory epithelia of humans and rodents contain unconventional cells, such as the crypt olfactory receptor neuron, hitherto only described for fish and that the respiratory epithelia contain several types of solitary chemosensory cells. The goal of this application is to characterize these unconventional receptor cells. My experiments are designed to obtain a clear picture of their anatomical and biochemical features to enable future functional experiments. Well-established immunocytochemical and ultrastructural (scanning and transmission electron microscopy) techniques on human and rodent nasal tissue will be utilized to determine the neuronal properties and morphological characteristics of these cells. Taken together, these experiments will render a more detailed knowledge of the sensory cell types present in the nasal epithelia, and thus, facilitate further studies on their function. A thorough knowledge of the cell types involved in the detection of odorants is critical in order to understand disorders and diseases of the olfactory system, such as anosmia caused by head trauma or cancer treatment, Alzheimer's or Parkinsonian diseases, and to conceive possible remedies.