Cooling of the urinary bladder activates neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord.
Although visceral innocuous cold receptors have been documented, the central termination of their afferents is unknown. We used menthol solution (0.6 mM) to obtain selective activation of cold receptors in the urinary bladder of rats. Innocuous cold stimulation induced Fos expression in a population of neurons in the superficial dorsal horn of L6-S1 segments of the spinal cord. Neurons in other regions of the spinal cord, e.g. the lumbar parasympathetic nucleus or the dorsal commissure region, were activated to a similar degree by menthol and control infusions, indicating a response to bladder filling. Our results are consistent with the proposal that subsets of modality-specific dorsal horn neurons convey specific information regarding the exteroceptive and interoceptive state of the animal.
Jiang
Chong-He
CH
Department of Biomedicine and Surgery, Linköping University, SE-581 85 Linköping, Sweden. chonghe.jiang@ibk.liu.se
Hermanson
Ola
O
D000818:Animals; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D008465:Mechanoreceptors / Q000502:physiology; D008610:Menthol / Q000494:pharmacology; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D020671:Posterior Horn Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013823:Thermoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology; D017833:Visceral Afferents / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
D016760:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos; D008610:Menthol