Enhancement of the Olfactory Response by Lipocalin Cp-Lip1 in Newt Olfactory Receptor Cells: An Electrophysiological Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (7) ◽  
pp. 523-533
Author(s):  
Tadashi Nakamura ◽  
Yoshihiro Noumi ◽  
Hiroyuki Yamakawa ◽  
Atsushi Nakamura ◽  
Durige Wen ◽  
...  

Abstract Previously, we have detected the expression of 2 lipocalin genes (lp1 and lp2) in the olfactory epithelium of the Japanese newt Cynops pyrrhogaster. Recombinant proteins of these genes (Cp-Lip1 and Cp-Lip2, respectively) exhibited high affinities to various odorants, suggesting that they work like the odorant-binding proteins (OBPs). However, the physiological functions of OBP generally remain inconclusive. Here, we examined the effect of Cp-Lip1 on the electrophysiological responses of newt olfactory receptor cells. We observed that the electro-olfactogram induced by the vapor of an odorant with high affinity to Cp-Lip1 appeared to increase in amplitude when a tiny drop of Cp-Lip1 solution was dispersed over the olfactory epithelium. However, the analysis was difficult because of possible interference by intrinsic components in the nasal mucus. We subsequently adopted a mucus-free condition by using suction electrode recordings from isolated olfactory cells, in which impulses were generated by puffs of odorant solution. When various concentration (0–5 µM) of Cp-Lip1 was mixed with the stimulus solution of odorants highly affinitive to Cp-Lip1, the impulse frequency increased in a concentration-dependent manner. The increase by Cp-Lip1 was seen more evidently at lower concentration ranges of stimulus odorants. These results strongly suggest that Cp-Lip1 broadens the sensitivity of the olfactory cells toward the lower concentration of odorants, by which animals can detect very low concentration of odorants.

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 1052-1057 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. V. Bobkov ◽  
B. W. Ache

Rhythmically bursting neurons are fundamental to neuronal network function but typically are not considered in the context of primary sensory signaling. We now report intrinsically bursting lobster primary olfactory receptor neurons that respond to odors with a phase-dependent burst of action potentials. Rhythmic odor input as might be generated by sniffing entrains the intrinsic bursting rhythm in a concentration-dependent manner and presumably synchronizes the ensemble of bursting cells. We suggest such intrinsically bursting olfactory receptor cells provide a novel way for encoding odor information.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 2207-2220 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. I. Ezeh ◽  
L. M. Davis ◽  
J. W. Scott

1. Electroolfactorgram (EOG) recordings were made from different regions of the rat olfactory epithelium to test for spatial distribution of odor responses. 2. The EOG recordings showed spatial distribution of the odor responses in the olfactory epithelium. While some odorants (amyl acetate, anisole, and ethyl butyrate) were more effective in evoking responses in the dorsal recess near the septum, other odorants (including limonene, cineole, cyclooctane, and hexane) were more effective in the lateral recesses among the turbinate bones. These differences were seen as statistically significant odorant-by-position interactions in analysis of variance. 3. Comparisons of recordings along the anteroposterior dimension of the epithelium produced smaller differences between the odor responses. These were not significant for 3-mm distances, but were statistically significant for 5- to 6-mm distances along the dorsomedial epithelium. 4. The latencies were significantly longer in the lateral recesses than in the medial region. This probably reflects a more tortuous air path along the turbinate bones to the lateral recesses. 5. The olfactory receptor cells were activated by antidromic stimulation via the nerve layer of the olfactory bulb. The population spikes evoked from the olfactory receptor cells could be suppressed by prior stimulation with odorants that evoked strong EOG responses. This collision of the antidromic action potentials with the odor-evoked action potentials indicates that the same population of receptor cells was activated in both cases. 6. The flow rate and duration of the artificial sniff were varied systematically in some experiments. The differential distribution of response sizes was present at all flow rates and sniff durations. Some odors (e.g., amyl acetate and anisole) produced increased responses in the epithelium of the lateral recesses when flow rates or sniff durations were high. We suggest that these changes may reflect the sorptive properties of the nasal membranes on these odors. The responses to other odors (e.g., hexane or limonene) were not greatly affected by flow rate or sniff duration. 7. Taken with existing anatomic data, the results indicate that the primary olfactory neurons that project axons to glomeruli in different parts of the olfactory bulb are responsive to different odors. The latency differences between responses at medial and lateral sites are large enough to be physiologically significant in the generation of the patterned responses of olfactory bulb neurons.


1985 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.P. Menco ◽  
A.I. Farbman

Rat foetuses from intra-uterine days E13 through E22 (day before parturition) and adults were used for a qualitative electron-microscopic investigation of the development of ciliated/microvillous surfaces of the olfactory epithelium. In the E13 and most of the E14 embryos the epithelial surface is not yet characteristically olfactory. Apical cell profiles show primary cilia. These can arise at the epithelial surface or below. From E14 onwards the epithelial surface acquires olfactory characteristics. Dendritic endings of the olfactory receptor cells can be found amidst microvillous profiles of supporting cells. Either cell type may bear primary cilia. From E16 onwards the receptor cells sprout multiple olfactory cilia, but cells with primary cilia are found throughout pre-natal development. These primary cilia are, at least for a while, retained during the formation of the secondary cilia. Primary cilia always have distinct necklaces at their base. Otherwise, especially with respect to their tips, their morphology can vary. Originally they have expanded tips (up to E14); later on such wide tips are no longer encountered (E16 and E17). Primary cilia of receptor cells never have wide tips. Appreciable numbers of endings with tapering olfactory cilia are discerned around E18 and especially E19. Throughout pre-natal development posterior/superior parts of the septal olfactory epithelium are more precocious than anterior/inferior parts, in particular in the region of transition with the respiratory epithelium. This advance in development includes total densities of dendritic endings of olfactory receptor cells, densities of multiciliated endings alone and lengths of supporting cell microvilli. This difference is discussed with respect to the topography of the olfactory epithelial surface in adult animals. In addition to the systematic topographic variation, a number of more local, apparently not-systematically distributed, topographic variations present during development are described. Most of these also occur in adult animals and they include heterogeneity in length of supporting cell microvilli and the presence of patches of supporting cells with rounded apical protuberances, of patches displaying dendrites with polyaxonemes rather than individual cilia and of scattered atypical cells (neither typical olfactory receptor nor olfactory supporting cells). At their surfaces such atypical cells can resemble inner-ear hair cells. Relative to olfactory receptor and supporting cells there are only very few atypical cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Author(s):  
Bert Ph. M. Menco

Vertebrate olfactory receptor cells are specialized neurons that have numerous long tapering cilia. The distal parts of these cilia line the interface between the external odorous environment and the luminal surface of the olfactory epithelium. The length and number of these cilia results in a large surface area that presumably increases the chance that an odor molecule will meet a receptor cell. Advanced methods of cryoprepration and immuno-gold labeling were particularly useful to preserve the delicate ultrastructural and immunocytochemical features of olfactory cilia required for localization of molecules involved in olfactory signal-transduction. We subjected olfactory tissues to freeze-substitution in acetone (unfixed tissues) or methanol (fixed tissues) followed by low temperature embedding in Lowicryl K11M for that purpose. Tissue sections were immunoreacted with several antibodies against proteins that are presumably important in olfactory signal-transduction.


1998 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 1011-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Wachowiak ◽  
Lawrence B. Cohen

Wachowiak, Matt and Lawrence B. Cohen. Presynaptic afferent inhibition of lobster olfactory receptor cells: reduced action-potential propagation into axon terminals. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 1011–1015, 1998. Action-potential propagation into the axon terminals of olfactory receptor cells was measured with the use of voltage-sensitive dye imaging in the isolated spiny lobster brain. Conditioning shocks to the olfactory nerve, known to cause long-lasting suppression of olfactory lobe neurons, allowed the selective imaging of activity in receptor cell axon terminals. In normal saline the optical signal from axon terminals evoked by a test stimulus was brief (40 ms) and small in amplitude. In the presence of low-Ca2+/high-Mg2+ saline designed to reduce synaptic transmission, the test response was unchanged in time course but increased significantly in amplitude (57 ± 16%, means ± SE). This increase suggests that propagation into receptor cell axon terminals is normally suppressed after a conditioning shock; this suppression is presumably synaptically mediated. Thus our results show that presynaptic inhibition occurs at the first synapse in the olfactory pathway and that the inhibition is mediated, at least in part, via suppression of action-potential propagation into the presynaptic terminal.


1989 ◽  
Vol 145 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Bayer ◽  
T. S. McClintock ◽  
U. Grunert ◽  
B. W. Ache

In two species of lobster, application of the biogenic amine, histamine (HA), to the soma of olfactory receptor cells suppressed both spontaneous and odour-evoked activity, as shown by electrophysiological recording from single cells. The action of HA was graded, reversible, specific to HA, and had a threshold between 0.1 and 1 mumol l-1. HA increased the conductance of the membrane, primarily to chloride ions. The vertebrate HA receptor antagonist, cimetidine, and the nicotinic receptor antagonist, d-tubocurarine, but not other known vertebrate HA receptor antagonists, reversibly blocked the action of HA. These results suggest that a histaminergic mechanism modulates stimulus-response coupling in lobster olfactory receptor cells and potentially implicate a novel HA receptor, pharmacologically similar to the one recently described in the visual system of flies.


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