Sympathetic ganglia are widely viewed as simply relays that are essential to convey neural activity from spinal preganglionic neurons to distinct peripheral targets. However, recent studies indicate that synaptic integration in sympathetic ganglia is more complex than that of a simple excitatory relay. It is proposed that synaptic organization of each functional subset of sympathetic ganglion cells is specialized to generate a unique synaptic gain function, thereby allowing for differential control of specific target modalities. This dissertation describes cellular specialization of some critical determinants of synaptic gain in rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons. The work was first focused on identifying presynaptic stimulus threshold and NPY immunoreactivity as neuronal classification criteria of secretomotor, pilomotor and vasoconstrictor cells. The results here show that these three functional phenotypes of neurons are indistinguishable in terms of synaptic convergence. Furthermore, norepinephrine (NE) causes different modulatory effects upon pre and postsynaptic ¦Á2-adrenergic receptors in these cell types. Collectively, this work characterizes cellular specialization of synaptic convergence and NE neuromodulatory mechanism that are involved in synaptic integration in the rat SCG.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12162007-144326 |
| Date | 17 December 2007 |
| Creators | Li, Chen |
| Contributors | Gonzalo E. Torres, Brian M. Davis, Elias Aizenman, Daniel Weinreich, Jonathan E. Rubin, John P. Horn |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12162007-144326/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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