Electrophysiological Characterization Of Purinergic Receptors In Mouse Enteric Neuron‐Glia Culture

Abstract

Enteric glial cells are known to be associated with neurons in the gut and are responsible for maintaining important functions including motility, mucosal secretion, host defense etc. Purinergic receptors play an important role in glia‐neuronal signaling. In the present study, we examined the effect of purinoceptor agonists on ionic currents in isolated mouse enteric neurons and glia. A mixed population of neuron and glia were prepared from the mouse longitudinal muscle myenteric plexus as recently described (Smith et al., PloS One, 2012;7(9):e45251). Action potentials and robust sodium currents were present in enteric neurons but not in glia. Perfusion with ATP (500uM) resulted in transient inward currents at −60 mV (n=11) characteristic of P2X channel activation in enteric neurons. Enteric glia stained positive for GFAP in culture. Neither action potentials nor sodium currents were observed in glia. ATP (500uM) produced transient outward currents at +120 mV characteristic of P2Y receptor activation (n=5). UTP, a P2Y 2, 4 and 6 specific agonist did not elicit a response in the neurons. Our results suggest that in the enteric neuron‐glia culture, neuronal cells primarily express the P2X receptors and the glial cells primarily express the P2Y receptors. Supported by NIHDK046367.