title: Acoustic overexposure increases the expression of VGLUT-2 mediated projections from the lateral vestibular nucleus to the dorsal cochlear nucleus.
abstract: The dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) is a first relay of the central auditory system as well as a site for integration of multimodal information. Vesicular glutamate transporters VGLUT-1 and VGLUT-2 selectively package glutamate into synaptic vesicles and are found to have different patterns of organization in the DCN. Whereas auditory nerve fibers predominantly co-label with VGLUT-1, somatosensory inputs predominantly co-label with VGLUT-2. Here, we used retrograde and anterograde transport of fluorescent conjugated dextran amine (DA) to demonstrate that the lateral vestibular nucleus (LVN) exhibits ipsilateral projections to both fusiform and deep layers of the rat DCN. Stimulating the LVN induced glutamatergic synaptic currents in fusiform cells and granule cell interneurones. We combined the dextran amine neuronal tracing method with immunohistochemistry and showed that labeled projections from the LVN are co-labeled with VGLUT-2 by contrast to VGLUT-1. Wistar rats were exposed to a loud single tone (15 kHz, 110 dB SPL) for 6 hours. Five days after acoustic overexposure, the level of expression of VGLUT-1 in the DCN was decreased whereas the level of expression of VGLUT-2 in the DCN was increased including terminals originating from the LVN. VGLUT-2 mediated projections from the LVN to the DCN are likely to play a role in the head position in response to sound. Amplification of VGLUT-2 expression after acoustic overexposure could be a compensatory mechanism from vestibular inputs in response to hearing loss and to a decrease of VGLUT-1 expression from auditory nerve fibers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Physiology and Pharmacology, Leicester University, Leicester, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barker
authors.forename: Hans Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Solinski
authors.forename: Haruka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tagoe
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pilati
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamann
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D022081:Cell Surface Extensions / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017626:Cochlear Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D017729:Presynaptic Terminals / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013569:Synapses / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D050598:Vesicular Glutamate Transport Protein 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D050599:Vesicular Glutamate Transport Protein 2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D003689:Vestibular Nucleus, Lateral / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D050598:Vesicular Glutamate Transport Protein 1; D050599:Vesicular Glutamate Transport Protein 2