Cellular interactions during maintenance and regeneration of the olfactory pathway

ANA PAULA PIANTANIDA; LORENA RELA

Huerta Grande, Córdoba

Congreso; II Reunion Conjunta de Neurociencias; 2010

Sociedad Argentina de Investigacion en Neurociencias

We propose to study neuron-glia interactions during sensory neuron integration to the mouse olfactory circuit.Olfactory sensory neurons are produced in adult life, extend axons along the olfactory nerve and synapse in the central nervous system (CNS). The olfactory nerve permits axon growth, which is attributed to the presence specialized glia -the olfactory ensheathing cells or OECs- through unknown mechanisms.OECs are gap junction-coupled, which alters their biophysical properties, suggesting that OEC function depends on connectivity. In addition, sensory neuron activity elicits Ca2+ transients in OECs and Ca2+ modulates both gap junction permeability and the effects of OECs on axon growth. We hypothesize that sensory neurons modulate OEC gap junction coupling and this in turn regulates sensory neuron integration. Our goals are to:1. Study the effect of sensory neuron activity on OEC connectivity, with electrophysiology in tissue slices.2. Assess the need of OEC gap junctions for integration of new sensory neurons, with electrophysiology and immunohistochemistry, in transgenic mice with reduced levels of gap junction proteins (connexins).This study will help both to understand olfactory circuit formation, and to design therapies using OEC transplants for CNS repair.