The Role of Sensory Neurons Innervating Internal Organs

投射概述在过去的几十年里，我们在理解体感神经元在感知外部感受信号(包括触摸、温度和疼痛)中的作用方面取得了巨大的进步。然而，体感神经元也支配着内脏，但我们对这些神经元的解剖学和生理学知之甚少。有文献关于内感神经元在感知肺伸展和血压方面的作用。这些研究主要集中在支配许多内脏的迷走神经节。然而，背根神经节(DRG)神经元，除了支配皮肤和肌肉外，也支配着不同的内部器官，但受到的关注要少得多。为了开始阐明这些感觉神经元的结构和功能，我们专注于脂肪神经支配的背根节神经元。这些神经元是一个有吸引力的起点，因为人们对它们的形态和功能知之甚少，但这些神经元可能与自主神经系统(例如交感神经系统)有着深刻的关系，并在全身生理学中扮演着重要角色。在这里，我们展示了脂肪储存库受到DRG神经元的强大神经支配。我们还收集了重要的初步数据，从分子上定义了支配脂肪库的DRG子集，并开始研究它们与交感活动的相互作用。我们建议使用最先进和创新的分子和遗传技术来定位支配脂肪的DRG神经元，描述它们的身份，并测试它们的功能。

Projection Summary Over the last decades, we have made tremendous advancements in understanding the role of somatosensory neurons in sensing exteroceptive signals including touch, temperature, and pain. However, somatosensory neurons also innervate internal organs, but we understand much less about the anatomy and physiology of these neurons. There is literature on the roles of interoceptive neurons in sensing lung stretch and blood pressure. These studies mainly focus on the Vagal Nodose ganglia that innervate many internal organs. However, dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons, in addition to innervating skin and muscle, also innervate disparate internal organs but have garnered much less focus. To begin to elucidate the structure and function of these sensory neurons, we focus on adipose-innervating DRG neurons. These neurons are an attractive starting point because very little is known about their form and function, but these neurons could potentially have a profound relationship with the autonomic nervous systems (for example, the sympathetic nervous system) and roles in whole-body physiology. Here, we show that fat depots are robustly innervated by DRG neurons. We have also collected important preliminary data molecularly defining the subset of DRGs that innervate fat depots, and have begun to address their interactions with the sympathetic activities. We propose to use state-of-the-art and innovative molecular and genetic techniques to map adipose-innervating DRG neurons, profile their identities, and test their function.