scholarly journals NEURONAL-GLIAL MEMBRANE CONTACTS DURING PESSIMAL ELECTRICAL STIMULATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-50
Author(s):  
Oleg S. Sotnikov ◽  
Svetlana S. Sergeeva ◽  
Tat'yana I. Vasyagina

After the creation of a method for obtaining inter-neuronal gap junctions in a nervous system devoid of glia, it is expedient to reproduce gap neuronal-glial contacts on a model that also contains hybrid neuronal-glial gap junctions, which, as you know, are functionally fundamentally different from inter-neuronal contacts. The experiments were carried out on the truncus sympathicus ganglia of laboratory rats using pessimal electrical stimulation and transmission electron microscopy. Electrical activation of ganglia with a frequency of up to 100 Hz revealed local and widespread variants of various neuronal-glial connections (contacts, bridges), fringed with peri-membrane filamentous proteins. They had a blurred veil that masked two-layer neuro-membranes. Some of the contacts resembled slit or dense 5-layer structures without a visible inter-neuronal slit, but with an extreme decrease in the thickness of the contact slit. The main result of the experiments was the formation, in addition to slotted, multiple septate (ladder) contacts. Relatively independent aggregates of the electron-dense substance of the septa were located inside the intercellular gaps, crossing both adjacent membranes, and, possibly, permeate of them. Near-membrane, poorly outlined pyramid-like protein cones associated with both cell membranes were also formed. Such membranes appeared to be dotted-dashed, that is, not continuous. A significant number of septic contact membranes had endocytic invaginations (invaginations) facing neuroplasm with pyramid-like marginal projections. All reactive altered structures that have arisen de novo are considered by the authors as developed under the influence of frequency electrical stimulation of denaturation and aggregation of intrinsic and perimembrane proteins.

2008 ◽  
Vol 294 (6) ◽  
pp. R1880-R1889 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Woock ◽  
Paul B. Yoo ◽  
Warren M. Grill

Coordination of the urinary bladder and the external urethral sphincter is controlled by descending projections from the pons and is also subject to modulation by segmental afferents. We quantified the effects on the micturition reflex of sensory inputs from genital afferents traveling in the penile component of the somatic pudendal nerve by electrical stimulation of the dorsal nerve of the penis (DNP) in α-chloralose anesthetized male cats. Depending on the frequency of stimulation (range, 1–40 Hz), activation of penile afferents either inhibited contractions of the bladder and promoted urine storage or activated the bladder and produced micturition. Stimulation of the DNP at 5–10 Hz inhibited distension-evoked contractions and increased the maximum bladder capacity before incontinence. Conversely, stimulation at 33 and 40 Hz augmented distension-evoked contractions. When the bladder was filled above a threshold volume (70% of the volume necessary for distension-evoked contractions), stimulation at 20–40 Hz activated de novo the micturition reflex and elicited detrusor contractions that increased voiding efficiency compared with distension-evoked voiding. Electrical stimulation of the DNP with a cuff electrode or percutaneous wire electrode produced similar results. The ability to evoke detrusor contractions by activation of the DNP was preserved following acute spinal cord transection. These results demonstrate a clear role of genital afferents in modulating the micturition reflex and suggest the DNP as a potential target for functional restoration of bladder control using electrical stimulation.


1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 2765-2779 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner Graf ◽  
Robert Spencer ◽  
Harriet Baker ◽  
Robert Baker

Graf, Werner, Robert Spencer, Harriet Baker, and Robert Baker. Excitatory and inhibitory vestibular pathways to the extraocular motor nuclei in goldfish. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 2765–2779, 1997. Electrophysiological, ultrastructural, and immunohistochemical techniques were utilized to describe the excitatory and inhibitory vestibular innervation of extraocular motor nuclei in the goldfish. In antidromically activated oculomotor motoneurons, electrical stimulation of the intact contralateral vestibular nerve produced short-latency, variable amplitude electrotonic excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) at 0.5–0.7 ms followed by chemical EPSPs at 1.0–1.3 ms. Stimulation of the ipsilateral vestibular nerve produced small amplitude membrane hyperpolarizations at a latency of 1.3–1.7 ms in which equilibrium potentials were slightly more negative than resting potentials. The inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs) reversed with large amplitudes after the injection of chloride ions suggesting a proximal soma-dendritic location of terminals exhibiting high efficacy inhibitory synaptic conductances. In antidromically identified abducens motoneurons and putative internuclear neurons, electrical stimulation of the contralateral vestibular nerve produced large-amplitude, short-latency electrotonic EPSPs at 0.5 ms followed by chemical depolarizations at 1.2–1.3 ms. Stimulation of the ipsilateral vestibular nerve evoked IPSPs at 1.4 ms that were reversed after injection of current and/or chloride ions. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) antibodies labeled inhibitory neurons in vestibular subdivisions with axons projecting into the ipsilateral medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF). Putative GABAergic terminals surrounded oculomotor, but not abducens, motoneurons retrogradely labeled with horseradish peroxidase. Hence the spatial distribution of GABAergic neurons and terminals appears highly similar in the vestibuloocular system of goldfish and mammals. Electron microscopy of motoneurons in the oculomotor and abducens nucleus showed axosomatic and axodendritic synaptic endings containing spheroidal synaptic vesicles establishing chemical, presumed excitatory, synaptic contacts with asymmetric pre- and/or postsynaptic membrane specializations. The majority of contacts with spheroidal vesicles displayed gap junctions in which the chemical and electrotonic synapses were either en face to dissimilar or adjacent to one another on the same soma/dendritic profiles. Another separate set of axosomatic synaptic endings, presumed to be inhibitory, contained pleiomorphic synaptic vesicles with symmetric pre- and/or postsynaptic membrane specializations that never included gap junctions. Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic contacts appeared equal in number but were more sparsely distributed along the soma-dendritic profiles of oculomotor as compared with abducens motoneurons. Collectively these data provide evidence for both disynaptic vestibular inhibition and excitation in all subdivisions of the extraocular motor nuclei suggesting the basic vestibulooculomotor blueprint to be conserved among vertebrates. We propose that unique vestibular neurons, transmitters, pathways, and synaptic arborizations are homologous structural traits that have been essentially preserved throughout vertebrate phylogeny by a shared developmental plan.


Author(s):  
Q. Bone

INTRODUCTIONBoth the inner and outer epithelia of salps propagate action potentials (Mackie & Bone, 1977). Skin pulses in the outer epithelium underlying the test (OSPs) evoked by mechanical or electrical stimulation of the epithelium ‘enter’ the brain and may alter the regular rhythmic locomotor activity (Mackie & Bone, 1977; Anderson et al. 1979). The route of'entry’ has not been determined, but has been assumed to be via the axons of the scattered mechanoreceptor sensory cells lying in the outer epithelium. The OSP system would thus operate to extend the sensory field of such cells, as in the appendicularian Oikopleura (Bone & Mackie, 1975; Bone & Ryan, 1979) where two sensory cells are coupled to a conducting epithelium.Salps alternate generations between the solitary asexual oozooid, and the aggregated sexual blastozooids (budded from the stolon of the oozooid). The linked blastozooids form chains, along which OSPs pass to regulate the locomotor behaviour of individual zooids in the chain. The zooids are not linked by gap junctions, and OSPs pass along the chain in a complex.manner, involving alternating epithelioneural and neuroepithelial synapses (Bone, Anderson & Pulsford, 1980; Anderson & Bone, 1980). The OSP system of the oozooid generation is less well understood, although it is known that OSPs in the outer epithelium of the oozooid propagate into the stolon, where they have been studied by Anderson (1979). This paper shows that oozooids possess a similar system of neuroepithelial synapses to that of blastozooids, and that these ‘ drive’ OSPs in the same way as occurs during the regenerative transmission of OSPs along the blastozooid chain.


Author(s):  
R. W. Ditchfield ◽  
A. G. Cullis

An energy analyzing transmission electron microscope of the Möllenstedt type was used to measure the electron energy loss spectra given by various layer structures to a spatial resolution of 100Å. The technique is an important, method of microanalysis and has been used to identify secondary phases in alloys and impurity particles incorporated into epitaxial Si films.Layers Formed by the Epitaxial Growth of Ge on Si Substrates Following studies of the epitaxial growth of Ge on (111) Si substrates by vacuum evaporation, it was important to investigate the possible mixing of these two elements in the grown layers. These layers consisted of separate growth centres which were often triangular and oriented in the same sense, as shown in Fig. 1.


Author(s):  
Ji-da Dai ◽  
M. Joseph Costello ◽  
Lawrence I. Gilbert

Insect molting and metamorphosis are elicited by a class of polyhydroxylated steroids, ecdysteroids, that originate in the prothoracic glands (PGs). Prothoracicotropic hormone stimulation of steroidogenesis by the PGs at the cellular level involves both calcium and cAMP. Cell-to-cell communication mediated by gap junctions may play a key role in regulating signal transduction by controlling the transmission of small molecules and ions between adjacent cells. This is the first report of gap junctions in the PGs, the evidence obtained by means of SEM, thin sections and freeze-fracture replicas.


Author(s):  
C.A. Mannella ◽  
K.F. Buttle ◽  
K.A. O‘Farrell ◽  
A. Leith ◽  
M. Marko

Early transmission electron microscopy of plastic-embedded, thin-sectioned mitochondria indicated that there are numerous junctions between the outer and inner membranes of this organelle. More recent studies have suggested that the mitochondrial membrane contacts may be the site of protein complexes engaged in specialized functions, e.g., import of mitochondrial precursor proteins, adenine nucleotide channeling, and even intermembrane signalling. It has been suggested that the intermembrane contacts may be sites of membrane fusion involving non-bilayer lipid domains in the two membranes. However, despite growing interest in the nature and function of intramitochondrial contact sites, little is known about their structure.We are using electron microscopic tomography with the Albany HVEM to determine the internal organization of mitochondria. We have reconstructed a 0.6-μm section through an isolated, plasticembedded rat-liver mitochondrion by combining 123 projections collected by tilting (+/- 70°) around two perpendicular tilt axes. The resulting 3-D image has confirmed the basic inner-membrane organization inferred from lower-resolution reconstructions obtained from single-axis tomography.


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