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J Yeats

Publications and source records attributed to J Yeats.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Protons activate a cation conductance in a sub-population of rat dorsal root ganglion neurones.

1. The responses of adult and neonatal rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurones to buffered acidic solutions were studied with both voltage clamp and radioactive ion flux techniques. Electrophysiological experiments were made on acutely isolated neurones and ion flux experiments were made on cells that had been in culture for 3-6 days. 2. Acid solutions of pH < 6.2 evoked a sustained, slowly inactivating inward current in neurones voltage clamped at negative holding potentials. The size of the current increased with increasing proton concentrations. This response was restricted to a sub-population (approximately 45%) of adult and neonatal rat DRG neurones and was distinct from a rapidly activating and inactivating proton-induced inward sodium current that was also found in DRG neurones. 3. The proton-activated sustained current was due to an increase in cation conductance that allowed K+, Cs+ and Na+ to pass with PK/PNa = 1.32 and PCs/PNa = 1.12. 4. Radioactive ion efflux experiments made on neonatal rat cultured DRG neurones showed that protons also increased the permeability to both [14C]guanidinium and 86Rb+ ions. The half-maximal increase in efflux rate for 86Rb+ occurred at pH 5.8. Acid solution also stimulated the efflux of 86Rb+ in cultures of adult rat neurones. 5. Cells that showed a late, sustained proton-activated current also responded to capsaicin. In addition, no proton-activated fluxes of either [14C]guanidinium or 86Rb+ ions were observed in cultures of DRG neurones that had been treated with high concentrations of capsaicin (10 microM) to kill the capsaicin-sensitive neurones. Thus this proton-activated current is restricted largely, if not exclusively, to capsaicin-sensitive peripheral sensory neurones.

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PubMed1988

Capsaicin-induced ion fluxes in dorsal root ganglion cells in culture.

Capsaicin is a pungent pain-producing compound found in plants of the capsicum family; it exerts excitatory, desensitizing, and toxic effects on a subset of sensory neurons, including the polymodal nociceptor population. We have carried out a quantitative study of capsaicin-induced fluxes of sodium, guanidine, calcium, rubidium, and chloride ions in cultures of neonatal and adult rat DRG neurons, in conjunction with the use of a histochemical stain that identifies capsaicin-sensitive neurons by means of cobalt uptake. Those cells that take up cobalt in a capsaicin-dependent manner (EC50 = 0.2 microM) represent about 50% of the total neuronal population derived from neonatal DRGs on short-term culture. Overnight treatment of cultures with 2 microM capsaicin leads to the loss of the cobalt-staining subpopulation. The capsaicin-insensitive neurons contain immunoreactive neurofilament epitopes that are present in fewer than 10% of capsaicin-sensitive neurons. This observation provides indirect evidence that the sensitive cells correspond to the small, dark B-type neurons, which are negative for neurofilament immunoreactivity in vivo. A capsaicin-dependent calcium uptake (EC50 = 0.2 microM), as measured by 45Ca incorporation, is shown by a DRG neuronal subpopulation that, like the cobalt-staining population of DRG neurons, is lost after overnight capsaicin treatment (2 microM). Capsaicin application leads to the accumulation of millimolar levels of calcium within a few minutes. Cadmium and other divalent cations block capsaicin-induced calcium uptake, but little or no inhibition is seen with organic calcium channel antagonists. Mitochondria, rather than the endoplasmic reticulum, are the probable destination of the internalized calcium, because ruthenium red inhibits calcium uptake (IC50 = 0.05 microM), whereas methylxanthines are inactive. The subset of sensory neurons that takes up calcium also releases 86Rb when exposed to capsaicin (EC50 = 0.06 microM). No efflux of 36Cl ions could be induced by capsaicin. These cells also show a capsaicin-induced uptake of 22Na or 14C guanidine (EC50 = 0.06 microM). In contrast, chick DRG cells in culture showed no capsaicin-induced calcium or cobalt uptake. Primary cultures of rat superior cervical ganglion neurons and Schwann cells, and a number of neuronal cell lines, also failed to respond to capsaicin, as judged by the calcium, cobalt, or guanidine uptake assays.

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PubMed1984

The regulatory peptide system of the large bowel in equine grass sickness.

In recent years, distinct changes in regulatory peptides have been found in a number of gastrointestinal diseases. Grass sickness is a fatal disease of horses for which the etiology has yet to be fully ascertained. In this study, the peptide-containing nerves and ganglionic and mucosal endocrine cells of the ileum, colon and rectum were investigated in horses with sub-acute or chronic grass sickness and compared with normal controls using immunocytochemistry, at both the light and electron microscopical levels, and radioimmunoassay. A substantial loss of both peptide-containing cells and nerves was found in all of the sick horses, particularly in the ileum. Electron microscopy revealed marked degeneration of nerves in the gut wall. Fibers containing granules immunostained for substance P or VIP, using the immunogold staining technique, underwent extensive degranulation in grass sickness, with the formation of multiple vacuoles. Radioimmunoassay of peptide content also showed that the most drastic changes occurred in the ileum. For example, VIP content was significantly reduced from 109 +/- 19.8 (mean +/- SEM) pmoles/g in controls to 6.8 +/- 1.4 pmoles/g in grass sickness (p less than 0.001) and substance P from 65.9 +/- 8.1 to 31.3 +/- 9.5 (p less than 0.02). These results may have applications in the diagnosis and treatment of grass sickness.

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