Sensory Receptors Are Found in a Non‐sensory Organ: The Bladder

Abstract

Recent research has found that “sensory” receptors (including olfactory receptors (ORs), taste receptors (TRs), and opsins) play functional roles throughout the body. However, the expression of these receptors has not yet been carefully examined in the bladder. In this study, we utilized customized Taqman low density gene array cards to perform quantitative PCR and identify novel sensory receptors in mouse bladder tissue. We extracted RNA from murine bladder (2 male, 2 female), and then screened for the presence of sensory receptors using custom Taqman arrays which included probesets for 43 ORs, 35 bitter TRs, 3 TRs for umami/sweet, 5 opsins, and 7 G‐proteins and/or accessory proteins associated with sensory signaling pathways, as well as a Gapdh control. Using these arrays, we found the expression of 30 sensory transcripts in all male and female bladder samples, with 11 receptors being relatively well‐expressed (Ct values<~30). The 11 highly expressed receptors included 2 opsins (Opn1sw, Opn3), 3 ORs (Olfr558, Olfr99, Olfr78), 5 TRs (Tas1r3, Tas2r143, Tas2r135, Tas2r108, Tas2r126), and the G protein for olfaction (Gnal). We did not note any sex differences, and the top hit (Opn1sw) was the same for all four arrays. Notably, two of the ORs found in the bladder (Olfr78, Olfr558) are known to respond to bacterial metabolites, which may be relevant in the setting of cystitis/urinary tract infections (UTIs). In the future, determining the role of these novel bladder sensory receptors has the potential to enhance our understanding of bladder function, and may lead to novel treatments for conditions such as cystitis/UTIs.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.