The arterial baroreceptor (BR) reflex plays an essential role in autonomic control of the heart. Altered discharge of BR afferents occurs with hypertension and heart failure and is therefore inextricably linked to autonomic nervous system dysfunction. BR are broadly classified as myelinated or unmyelinated afferents, each exhibiting distinct discharge patterns in response to arterial pressure changes. The micromechanical environment of the peripheral termination certainly plays a role in the process of pressure transduction. However, the operational differences in sensory coding between these two functional phenotypes may also arise from unique distributions of ion channels at critical points along the afferent pathway (e.g. arterial pressoreceptor, cell body, central synapse). Unfortunately, such a bimodal demarcation belies the continuum of physiological properties exhibited by BR and makes difficult the integration of cellular and systems level observations. For example, selective recruitment of myelinated or unmyelinated BR via electrical excitation of voltage-gated ion channels (i.e. activation independent of mechanotransduction) evokes dramatically different heart rate and blood pressure reflex responses. The ionic mechanisms that contribute to the differential sensory encoding properties of myelinated and unmyelinated BR are largely unknown. Here, we use a newly developed adult rat nerve-ganglion preparation for patch clamp study of fluorescently identified aortic baroreceptor neurons which ensures unambiguous classification of sensory modality and afferent fiber type. Preliminary data are suggestive of a differential utilization of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels that may potentially explain some of the contrasting pressure encoding properties of myelinated and unmyelinated BR. For example, neural discharge from myelinated afferents appears less dependent upon N-type Ca2+. (ICa,N)and BK-type Ca2+-activated K+ (IKCa,BK)ion channels than activity arising from unmyelinated afferents, despite voltage clamp evidence for functional coexpression of ICa,N and IKCa,BK in both phenotypes. Such differential ionic mechanisms may underlie the disparate neural encoding properties of myelinated and unmyelinated BR and could potentially influence brainstem integration of cardiovascular afferent information if similarly represented at the presynaptic terminals. These fundamental details may lead to novel pharmacological strategies in the management of cardiovascular pathologies such as acute hypertension and dysrhythmias that are well known to involve or invoke autonomic reflexes through BR activation. ? ?
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