▲ 作者:Dawei Zhang, Josef Turecek, Seungwon Choi et al.
▲ 链接:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq8834
▲ 摘要:
许多多毛哺乳动物会进行身体的快速摆动,称为“湿狗抖水”,以清除背部皮肤上的水分和刺激物。这种行为背后的体感机制尚不明晰。
我们报道了压电依赖的机械感觉介导了水或油滴应用于小鼠背部毛状皮肤引起的“湿狗抖水”。无髓鞘C-纤维低阈值机械感受器(C-LTMRs)被油滴激活,其光遗传学激活引起“湿狗抖水”。C-LTMRs的消融减弱了这种行为。
此外,C-LTMRs与脊髓旁臂神经元突触偶联,光遗传抑制脊髓旁臂神经元突触和臂旁核兴奋性神经元对油滴和C-LTMRs诱发的“湿狗抖水”均有抑制。因此,C-LTMRs脊髓旁臂通路促进湿狗摇动以去除背部毛状皮肤上的水分和机械刺激物。
▲ Abstract:
Many hairy mammals perform rapid oscillations of their body, called wet dog shakes, to remove water and irritants from their back hairy skin. The somatosensory mechanisms that underlie this behavior are unclear. We report that Piezo2-dependent mechanosensation mediates wet dog shakes evoked by water or oil droplets applied to back hairy skin of mice. Unmyelinated C-fiber low-threshold mechanoreceptors (C-LTMRs) were activated by oil droplets, and their optogenetic activation elicited wet dog shakes. Ablation of C-LTMRs attenuated this behavior. Moreover, C-LTMRs synaptically couple to spinoparabrachial neurons, and optogenetically inhibiting spinoparabrachial neuron synapses and excitatory neurons in the parabrachial nucleus impaired both oil droplet– and C-LTMR–evoked wet dog shakes. Thus, a C-LTMR–spinoparabrachial pathway promotes wet dog shakes for removal of water and mechanical irritants from back hairy skin.