Skip Navigation



Chemical Senses Advance Access published online on March 17, 2006
Chemical Senses, doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj047
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
31/5/425    most recent
bjj047v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Shimazaki, R.
Right arrow Articles by Menini, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Shimazaki, R.
Right arrow Articles by Menini, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Accepted February 16, 2006

Article

Electrophysiological Properties and Modeling of Murine Vomeronasal Sensory Neurons in Acute Slice Preparations

Ranken Shimazaki 1, Anna Boccaccio 1, Andrea Mazzatenta 1, Giulietta Pinato 1, Michele Migliore 2, and Anna Menini 1 *

1 International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA, Sector of Neurobiology, Via Beirut 2-4, 34014 Trieste, Italy
2 Institute of Biophysics, National Research Council, 90123 Palermo, Italy; Department of Neurobiology, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Anna Menini, E-mail: menini{at}sissa.it


  Abstract

The vomeronasal system is involved in the detection of pheromones in many mammals. Vomeronasal sensory neurons encode the behaviorally relevant information into action potentials that are directly transmitted to the accessory olfactory bulb. We developed a model of the electrical activity of mouse basal vomeronasal sensory neurons, which mimics both the voltage-gated current properties and the firing behavior of these neurons in their near-native state, using a minimal number of parameters. Data were obtained by recordings with the whole-cell voltage-clamp or current-clamp techniques from mouse basal vomeronasal sensory neurons in acute slice preparations. The resting potential ranged from -50 to -70 mV, and current injections of less than 2-10 pA induced tonic firing in most neurons. The experimentally determined firing frequency as a function of injected current was well described by a Michaelis-Menten equation and was exactly reproduced by the model, which could be used in combination with future models that will include details of the mouse vomeronasal transduction cascade.

Keywords: action potential; firing; mouse; pheromone; voltage-gated current; vomeronasal organ.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
K. Ukhanov, T. Leinders-Zufall, and F. Zufall
Patch-Clamp Analysis of Gene-Targeted Vomeronasal Neurons Expressing a Defined V1r or V2r Receptor: Ionic Mechanisms Underlying Persistent Firing
J Neurophysiol, October 1, 2007; 98(4): 2357 - 2369.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.