The Sandwich Synapse: Trans-glial Signaling Between Neuronal Somata in the Dorsal Root Ganglion

The dorsal root ganglion (DRG) contains the cell bodies of primary somatosensory neurons that form axonal connections for the transfer of sensory input from the peripheral nerve receptor to the spinal cord in the central nervous system. In general, DRG neuronal somata (NS) are each enveloped by individual satellite glial cell (SGC) sheaths. However, a subset of NS are closely-apposed and separated solely by a thin SGC membrane septum, forming a structural cell trimer. Using patch clamp electrophysiological recording, we reported that repetitive stimulation of one NS evokes a delayed, noisy and long-duration inward current in both itself and its passive partner. Several lines of evidence demonstrate that transmission between the two NS is via a bi-synaptic, trans-glial pathway that we term a `Sandwich Synapse'. The first, NS to glial cell, synapse involves ATP release from the neuron and purinergic activation of the glial cell. The second, glial cell to NS, synapse is glutamatergic. We find that inter-NS transmission at the DRG Sandwich Synapse involves Ca

Department dc:contributor.department

Physiology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Rozanski, Gabriela Maria

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stanley, Elise F

• dorsal root ganglion
• glutamatergic
• patch clamp
• purinergic
• trans-glial
• T-type channel

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/73784

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/73784