title: Identified hair follicle afferent boutons in the spinal cord of the cat are enriched with L-glutamate-like immunoreactivity.
abstract: Hair follicle afferent boutons in the spinal dorsal horn of the cat were examined for L-glutamate enrichment. Two hair follicle afferent axons were labelled intra-axonally with horseradish peroxidase, and post-embedding immunogold reactions of L-glutamate were performed on thin sections containing horseradish peroxidase-labelled boutons. Quantitative analysis showed that hair follicle boutons were associated with immunogold reactions for L-glutamate which were almost twice as dense as average values for dorsal horn tissue. Further analysis revealed that hair afferent boutons displayed 2.3-times the average gold particle density associated with post-synaptic dendrites and 3-times the average immunogold density for L-glutamate of structures which were known to be immunoreactive for GABA. This enrichment of L-glutamate in identified hair afferent terminals supports the idea that the amino acid is a neurotransmitter of hair follicle primary afferent axons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preclinical Veterinary Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Christie
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: O P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Ottersen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Storm-Mathisen
mesh_terms: D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005971:Glutamates / Q000378:metabolism*; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D006197:Hair / Q000294:innervation*; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D009412:Nerve Fibers / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D006735:Horseradish Peroxidase