Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor in arterial baroreceptor pathways: implications for activity‐dependent plasticity at baroafferent synapses
Open Access
- 10 December 2008
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Neurochemistry
- Vol. 108 (2), 450-464
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-4159.2008.05781.x
Abstract
Functional characteristics of the arterial baroreceptor reflex change throughout ontogenesis, including perinatal adjustments of the reflex gain and adult resetting during hypertension. However, the cellular mechanisms that underlie these functional changes are not completely understood. Here, we provide evidence that brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neurotrophin with a well‐established role in activity‐dependent neuronal plasticity, is abundantly expressed in vivo by a large subset of developing and adult rat baroreceptor afferents. Immunoreactivity to BDNF is present in the cell bodies of baroafferent neurons in the nodose ganglion, their central projections in the solitary tract, and terminal‐like structures in the lower brainstem nucleus tractus solitarius. Using ELISA in situ combined with electrical field stimulation, we show that native BDNF is released from cultured newborn nodose ganglion neurons in response to patterns that mimic the in vivo activity of baroreceptor afferents. In particular, high‐frequency bursting patterns of baroreceptor firing, which are known to evoke plastic changes at baroreceptor synapses, are significantly more effective at releasing BDNF than tonic patterns of the same average frequency. Together, our study indicates that BDNF expressed by first‐order baroreceptor neurons is a likely mediator of both developmental and post‐developmental modifications at first‐order synapses in arterial baroreceptor pathways.Keywords
This publication has 79 references indexed in Scilit:
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor-immunoreactive neurons in the rat vagal and glossopharyngeal sensory ganglia; co-expression with other neurochemical substancesBrain Research, 2007
- Cranial Visceral Afferent Pathways through the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract to Caudal Ventrolateral Medulla or Paraventricular Hypothalamus: Target-Specific Synaptic Reliability and Convergence PatternsJournal of Neuroscience, 2006
- Calcitonin gene‐related peptide enhances release of native brain‐derived neurotrophic factor from trigeminal ganglion neuronsJournal of Neurochemistry, 2006
- Pressure to change? Re-evaluating the role of baroreceptors in the long-term control of arterial pressureAmerican Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 2005
- Purinergic and Vanilloid Receptor Activation Releases Glutamate from Separate Cranial Afferent Terminals in Nucleus Tractus SolitariusJournal of Neuroscience, 2004
- Distribution of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Cranial and Spinal GangliaExperimental Neurology, 1998
- Maturation of Brain Stem Neurons Involved in Respiratory Rhythmogenesis: Biochemical, Bioelectrical and Morphological PropertiesNeonatology, 1994
- Non-NMDA receptors in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius play the predominant role in mediating aortic baroreceptor reflexesBrain Research, 1991
- Rapid baroreceptor resetting in chronic hypertension. Implications for normalization of arterial pressure.Hypertension, 1991
- ARTERIAL BARORECEPTOR RESETTING: CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRONIC AND ACUTE PROCESSESClinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology, 1989