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The effect of reducing extracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]o) on vagal afferent excitability was analyzed in a guinea pig isolated vagally innervated trachea-bronchus preparation. Afferent fibers were characterized as either having low-threshold, rapidly adapting mechanosensors (Aδ fibers) or nociceptive-like phenotypes (Aδ and C fibers). The nociceptors were derived from neurons within the jugular ganglia, whereas the low-threshold mechanosensors were derived from neurons within the nodose ganglia. Reducing [Ca2+]o did not affect the excitability of the low-threshold mechanosensors in the airway. By contrast, reducing [Ca2+]o selectively increased the excitability of airway nociceptors as manifested by a substantive increase in action potential discharge in response to mechanical stimulation, and in a subset of fibers, by overtly evoking action potential discharge. This increase in the excitability of nociceptors was not mimicked by a combination of ω-conotoxin and nifedipine or tetraethylammonium. Whole cell patch recordings from airway-labeled and unlabeled neurons in the vagal jugular ganglia support the hypothesis that [Ca2+]o inhibits a nonselective cation conductance in vagal nociceptors that may serve to regulate excitability of the nerve terminals within the airways.

Carlson, Greg C., Melissa L. Slawecki, Eric Lancaster, and Asaf Keller. Distribution and activation of intracellular Ca2+stores in cultured olfactory bulb neurons. J. Neurophysiol. 78: 2176–2185, 1997. The presence and distribution of intracellular Ca2+release pathways in olfactory bulb neurons were studied in dissociated cell cultures. Histochemical techniques and imaging of Ca2+fluxes were used to identify two major intracellular Ca2+release mechanisms: inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate receptor (IP3R)-mediated release, and ryanodine receptor-mediated release. Cultured neurons were identified by immunocytochemistry for the neuron-specificmarker β-tubulin III. Morphometric analyses and immunocytochemistry for glutamic acid-decarboxylase revealed a heterogeneous population of cultured neurons with phenotypes corresponding to both projection (mitral/tufted) and intrinsic (periglomerular/granule) neurons of the in vivo olfactory bulb. Immunocytochemistry for the IP3R, and labeling with fluorescent-tagged ryanodine, revealed that, irrespective of cell type, almost all cultured neurons express IP3R and ryanodine binding sites in both somata and dendrites. Functional imaging revealed that intracellular Ca2+fluxes can be generated in the absence of external Ca2+, using agonists specific to each of the intracellular release pathways. Local pressure application of glutamate or quisqualate evoked Ca2+fluxes in both somata and dendrites in nominally Ca2+free extracellular solutions, suggesting the presence of IP3-dependent Ca2+release. These fluxes were blocked by preincubation with thapsigargin and persisted in the presence of the glutamate receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione. Local application of caffeine, a ryanodine receptor agonist, also evoked intracellular Ca2+fluxes in the absence of extracellular Ca2+. These Ca2+fluxes were suppressed by preincubation with ryanodine. In all neurons, both IP3- and ryanodine-dependent release pathways coexisted, suggesting that they interact to modulate intracellular Ca2+concentrations.

Standard patch-clamp and intracellular recording techniques were used to monitor membrane excitability changes in adult inferior vagal ganglion neurons (nodose ganglion neurons, NGNs) 5 days following section of the vagus nerve (vagotomy). NGNs were maintained in vivo for 5 days following vagotomy, and then in vitro for 2–9 h prior to recording. Vagotomy increased action potential (AP) threshold by over 200% (264 ± 19 pA, mean ± SE, n = 66) compared with control values (81 ± 20 pA, n = 68; P < 0.001). The number of APs evoked by a 3 times threshold 750-ms depolarizing current decreased by >70% (from 8.3 to 2.3 APs, P < 0.001) and the number of APs evoked by a standardized series of (0.1–0.9 nA, 750 ms) depolarizing current steps decreased by over 80% (from 16.9 APs to 2.6 APs, P < 0.001) in vagotomized NGNs. Similar decreases in excitability were observed in vagotomized NGNs in intact ganglia in vitro studied with “sharp” microelectrode techniques. Baseline electrophysiological properties and changes following vagotomy were similar in right and left NGNs. A “sham” vagotomy procedure had no effect on NGN properties at 5 days, indicating that changes were due to severing the vagus nerve itself, not surrounding tissue damage. NGNs isolated after being maintained 17 h in vivo following vagotomy revealed no differences in excitability, suggesting that vagotomy-induced changes occur some time from 1–5 days after injury. Decreased excitability was still observed in NGNs isolated after 20–21 days in vivo following vagotomy. These data indicate that, in contrast to many primary sensory neurons that are thought to become hyperexcitable following section of their axons, NGNs undergo a marked decrease in electrical excitability following vagotomy.