Unconventional receptor neurons in nasal epithelia

脊椎动物的鼻上皮在检测我们环境中的化学线索方面起着重要的作用。 例如与食物、性社交和非性社交、捕食者和危险有关的气味。这个 常见观点将纤毛感受器神经元归于主要的嗅觉上皮，以检测主要的食物气味 和微绒毛感受器神经元连接到犁鼻器，以探测性/社会暗示。呼吸系统 据说上皮只含有三叉神经的游离神经末梢，以检测潜在的有害物质。 物质。然而，最近的研究以及我们的初步数据表明，细胞的形态和功能 鼻腔上皮细胞更为复杂。我们的初步数据表明，人的主要嗅觉上皮 啮齿动物和人类含有的受体细胞与纤毛受体神经元的描述不符 呼吸道上皮含有几种类型的感觉细胞。当这些细胞出现在 相当多的细胞(例如，主要嗅觉上皮中的微绒毛细胞)，它们代表一个 生理上相关的群体，其功能可能在化学感觉中起重要作用。基于 根据我的初步数据，我推测人类和啮齿动物的主要嗅觉上皮细胞含有 非常规细胞，如隐窝嗅觉感受器神经元，到目前为止只为FISH所描述，并且 呼吸道上皮含有几种孤立的化学感觉细胞。这项提议的目标是 描述这些非常规受体细胞的特征。我的实验旨在获得一幅清晰的图像 它们的解剖和生化特征使未来的功能实验成为可能。老牌的 免疫细胞化学和超微结构(扫描和透射电子显微镜)技术 人类和啮齿动物的鼻部组织将被用来确定神经元的特性和形态 这些细胞的特征。综上所述，这些实验将使我们对 感觉细胞的类型存在于鼻上皮中，因此，有助于进一步研究它们的功能。一个 彻底了解与气味检测有关的细胞类型对于理解 嗅觉障碍嗅觉系统的紊乱和疾病，如由头部创伤或癌症引起的嗅觉障碍 治疗阿尔茨海默氏症或帕金森氏症，并构思可能的治疗方法。

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 microvillous receptor neurons to the vomeronasal organ to detect sexual/social cues. The respiratory epithelium was 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. microvillous 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 proposal 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.