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Reactive species modify NaV1.8 channels and affect action potentials in murine dorsal root ganglion neurons

  • Ion channels, receptors and transporters
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Abstract

Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons are important relay stations between the periphery and the central nervous system and are essential for somatosensory signaling. Reactive species are produced in a variety of physiological and pathophysiological conditions and are known to alter electric signaling. Here we studied the influence of reactive species on the electrical properties of DRG neurons from mice with the whole-cell patch-clamp method. Even mild stress induced by either low concentrations of chloramine-T (10 μM) or low-intensity blue light irradiation profoundly diminished action potential frequency but prolonged single action potentials in wild-type neurons. The impact on evoked action potentials was much smaller in neurons deficient of the tetrodotoxin (TTX)-resistant voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.8 (NaV1.8−/−), the channel most important for the action potential upstroke in DRG neurons. Low concentrations of chloramine-T caused a significant reduction of NaV1.8 peak current and, at higher concentrations, progressively slowed down inactivation. Blue light had a smaller effect on amplitude but slowed down NaV1.8 channel inactivation. The observed effects were less apparent for TTX-sensitive NaV channels. NaV1.8 is an important reactive-species-sensitive component in the electrical signaling of DRG neurons, potentially giving rise to loss-of-function and gain-of-function phenomena depending on the type of reactive species and their effective concentration and time of exposure.

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Abbreviations

ChT:

Chloramine-T

DRG:

Dorsal root ganglion

DTT:

Dithiothreitol

NADPH:

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate

Nox:

NADPH oxidase

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

tBHP:

tert-Butyl hydroperoxide

TTX:

Tetrodotoxin

TTX-r:

Tetrodotoxin-resistant

TTX-s:

Tetrodotoxin-sensitive

wt:

Wild type

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Acknowledgments

Scn10a and Scn11a knockout mice were generously provided by Dr. John N. Wood, London, UK.

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation RTG 1715 (S.H.H.) and LE2338/3-1 (E.L.), the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research, Jena (M.S.), the Landesgraduiertenprogramm Thüringen (J.S.), and the National Institutes of Health (T.H.).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biophysics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena & Jena University Hospital, Hans-Knöll-Str. 2, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Martin Schink, Enrico Leipold, Jana Schirmeyer, Roland Schönherr & Stefan H. Heinemann

  2. Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Toshinori Hoshi

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  1. Martin Schink
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  2. Enrico Leipold
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Correspondence to Stefan H. Heinemann.

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Schink, M., Leipold, E., Schirmeyer, J. et al. Reactive species modify NaV1.8 channels and affect action potentials in murine dorsal root ganglion neurons. Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol 468, 99–110 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-015-1735-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-015-1735-z

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