title: Osmometry in osmosensory neurons.
abstract: Mechanosensitive channels may act as osmosensory transducers because osmotically evoked changes in cell volume alter forces applied to the channel and affect opening probability. However, osmotically stimulated cells regulate volume normally, whereas systemic osmoregulatory responses are sustained. Here we report that osmosensory neurons of rat supraoptic nucleus expressed significant membrane reserves, and could not regulate volume or total membrane surface area during osmotic perturbations, which may allow mechanosensitive channels to encode the amplitude and time course of an osmotic stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Montreal General Hospital & McGill University, 1650 Cedar Avenue, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1A4, Canada.
authors.forename: Zizhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Charles W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Bourque
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability / Q000502:physiology; D048429:Cell Size / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013495:Supraoptic Nucleus / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance / Q000502:physiology*