Plasticity of neurons in mouse major pelvic ganglia in response to loos of physiological input in cases of nerve injury and spinal cord injury
type: CreativeWork
description: Autonomic dysfunctions present significant effects on day to day functions of spinal cord-injured patients. Most people with spinal cord injury (SCI) reported a desire to recover autonomic functions such as bladder and sexual functions over regaining of locomotor functions. Lower urinary tract function is one of the autonomic functions that is impaired after SCI. Acute SCI results in areflexic bladder and complete urinary retention while patients with chronic SCI suffer from hyperreflexic bladder, incontinence and inefficient voiding. While extensive SCI research has been done locomotor recovery, relatively limited amount of research has been done on the underlying mechanisms of autonomic dysfunctions associated with SCI. The major pelvic ganglia (MPG) are peripheral ganglia that consist of postganglionic neurons that innervate the urogenital organs and are a part of the neural pathway that controls micturition. In mice, there is one MPG on each side of the animal. MPG receives cholinergic parasympathetic input from the preganglionic neurons in the sacral cord through pelvic nerve and sympathetic cholinergic inputs from those in the lumbosacral cord through the hypogastric nerve. Nicotinic cholinergic transmitter system is the major system involved in ganglionic synaptic transmission at the MPG neurons. The goal of this thesis is to understand the effects of neural injury on nicotinic cholinergic transmission at the postganglionic MPG neurons that innervate the urogenital organs. We are interested in the properties of MPG neurons in these injury states because these neurons are the final neurons in the autonomic pathway that directly innervate the target organs whose functions are compromised as results of these injuries. Before we could study the state of MPG neurons in injury conditions, we first needed to characterize the properties of these neurons in uninjured physiological state. By characterizing the normal cholinergic transmission in control mice, we are abl…
abstract: Autonomic dysfunctions present significant effects on day to day functions of spinal cord-injured patients. Most people with spinal cord injury (SCI) reported a desire to recover autonomic functions such as bladder and sexual functions over regaining of locomotor functions. Lower urinary tract function is one of the autonomic functions that is impaired after SCI. Acute SCI results in areflexic bladder and complete urinary retention while patients with chronic SCI suffer from hyperreflexic bladder, incontinence and inefficient voiding. While extensive SCI research has been done locomotor recovery, relatively limited amount of research has been done on the underlying mechanisms of autonomic dysfunctions associated with SCI. The major pelvic ganglia (MPG) are peripheral ganglia that consist of postganglionic neurons that innervate the urogenital organs and are a part of the neural pathway that controls micturition. In mice, there is one MPG on each side of the animal. MPG receives cholinergic parasympathetic input from the preganglionic neurons in the sacral cord through pelvic nerve and sympathetic cholinergic inputs from those in the lumbosacral cord through the hypogastric nerve. Nicotinic cholinergic transmitter system is the major system involved in ganglionic synaptic transmission at the MPG neurons. The goal of this thesis is to understand the effects of neural injury on nicotinic cholinergic transmission at the postganglionic MPG neurons that innervate the urogenital organs. We are interested in the properties of MPG neurons in these injury states because these neurons are the final neurons in the autonomic pathway that directly innervate the target organs whose functions are compromised as results of these injuries. Before we could study the state of MPG neurons in injury conditions, we first needed to characterize the properties of these neurons in uninjured physiological state. By characterizing the normal cholinergic transmission in control mice, we are abl…
author: Kyi, Cindy
language: eng
language: English
date published: 2018
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:08:20Z
provider: University of Missouri
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Missouri--Columbia

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/68909

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.32469/10355/68909