Blunted Behavioral and Trigeminal Responses to Acidic Fumes in the African Naked Mole-Rat

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Blunted Behavioral and Trigeminal Responses to Acidic Fumes in the African Naked Mole-Rat Pamela C. Lavinka1 and Thomas Park1* 1 University of Illinois at Chicago, United States Acidosis in the skin triggers activation of pain pathways, and behaviors indicative of pain in vertebrates. The exception is the naked mole-rat, the only known vertebrate to show physiological and behavioral insensitivity to acid pain in the skin. The goal of the present study was to determine behavioral and physiological responses of this species to airborne acidic fumes, which would be expected to affect the trigeminal pain pathway in other species. Behaviorally, naked mole-rats did not avoid fumes from moderately high concentrations of acetic acid (10 and 20%), and c Fos labeling showed no increase in activity in the trigeminal nuclei and nucleus tractus solitarius. In contrast, these concentrations triggered behavioral aversion and increased Fos activity in other laboratory rodents. For a very high concentration of acetic acid (50%), naked mole-rats showed significant avoidance behavior and increased Fos labeling in the nucleus tractus solitarius caudal region, which receives vagal chemosensory information. However, there was no increase in trigeminal labeling, and in fact, activity significantly decreased. This pattern is opposite of that associated with another irritant, ammonia fumes, which elicited an increase in trigeminal but not nucleus tractus solitarius Fos labeling, and no behavioral avoidance. Behavioral avoidance of acidic fumes, but no increased labeling in the trigeminal pain nucleus is consistent with the notion of adaptations to blunt acid pain, which would be advantageous for naked mole-rats as they normally live under chronically high levels of acidosis-inducing CO2. Keywords: acid, irritant, naked mole-rat, nucleus tractus solitarius, Pain, Substance P, trigeminal, voltage gated sodium channels Conference: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster (but consider for participant symposium and student poster award) Topic: Neuromodulation Citation: Lavinka PC and Park T (2012). Blunted Behavioral and Trigeminal Responses to Acidic Fumes in the African Naked Mole-Rat . Conference Abstract: Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00101 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 23 Apr 2012; Published Online: 07 Jul 2012. * Correspondence: Prof. Thomas Park, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, United States, tpark@uic.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Pamela C Lavinka Thomas Park Google Pamela C Lavinka Thomas Park Google Scholar Pamela C Lavinka Thomas Park PubMed Pamela C Lavinka Thomas Park Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.