PMID- 19073215
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090409
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 0165-0270 (Print)
IS  - 1872-678X (Electronic)
IS  - 0165-0270 (Linking)
VI  - 177
IP  - 2
DP  - 2009 Mar 15
TI  - An ex vivo preparation of the intact mouse vomeronasal organ and accessory 
      olfactory bulb.
PG  - 440-7
LID - 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.11.013 [doi]
AB  - The accessory olfactory system (AOS) in mammals detects and processes information 
      from liquid-phase environmental odorants, including pheromones. The AOS carries 
      out tasks such as individual recognition, learning, and decision-making with 
      relatively few stages of neural processing; it thus represents an attractive 
      system for investigating the neural circuits that carry out these functions. 
      Progress in understanding the AOS has long been impeded by its relative 
      inaccessibility to standard physiological approaches. In this report, we detail a 
      novel dissection and tissue perfusion strategy that improves access to the 
      accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) while maintaining afferent connections from 
      sensory neurons in the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Mitral cells demonstrated 
      spontaneous and evoked firing patterns consistent with recent in vivo reports. We 
      assayed cell degradation in the AOB tissue using Fluoro-Jade C and found that the 
      VNO and AOB glomerular, external plexiform, and mitral cell layers showed minimal 
      signs of degeneration for up to 6h. Whereas histology indicated some degeneration 
      in the deep inhibitory granule cell layer over time, electrophysiological assays 
      demonstrated intact inhibitory function on mitral cells. Pharmacological blockade 
      of GABA(A) receptors with 3microM SR95531 (gabazine) resulted in increased evoked 
      mitral cell activity. Furthermore, mitral cells displayed suppression of 
      responses to preferred urine stimuli when preferred and non-preferred stimuli 
      were mixed, an effect thought to involve functional laterally connected 
      inhibition. These results demonstrate the utility of whole mount ex vivo 
      preparations for studying sensory processing in the AOS, and suggest that similar 
      strategies may improve experimental access to other difficult-to-study neural 
      circuits.
FAU - Meeks, Julian P
AU  - Meeks JP
AD  - Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, 
      Campus Box 8108, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63110, United States. 
      meeks@pcg.wustl.edu <meeks@pcg.wustl.edu>
FAU - Holy, Timothy E
AU  - Holy TE
LA  - eng
GR  - R01 DC005964/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 DC005964-05/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01-DC005964/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20081127
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - J Neurosci Methods
JT  - Journal of neuroscience methods
JID - 7905558
RN  - 0 (Fluoresceins)
RN  - 0 (Organic Chemicals)
RN  - 0 (Pheromones)
RN  - 0 (fluoro jade)
SB  - IM
MH  - Action Potentials/drug effects/physiology
MH  - Animals
MH  - Diffusion Chambers, Culture/instrumentation/methods
MH  - Dissection/*methods
MH  - Electrophysiology/instrumentation/*methods
MH  - Fluoresceins
MH  - Male
MH  - Mice
MH  - Mice, Inbred C57BL
MH  - Mice, Inbred DBA
MH  - Nerve Degeneration/pathology/physiopathology
MH  - Neural Inhibition/physiology
MH  - Olfactory Bulb/anatomy & histology/*physiology
MH  - Olfactory Pathways/anatomy & histology/*physiology
MH  - Organ Culture Techniques/instrumentation/methods
MH  - Organic Chemicals
MH  - Perfusion/instrumentation/*methods
MH  - Pheromones/pharmacology
MH  - Sensory Receptor Cells/cytology/drug effects/physiology
MH  - Staining and Labeling
MH  - Vomeronasal Organ/anatomy & histology/*physiology
PMC - PMC2709076
MID - NIHMS93544
EDAT- 2008/12/17 09:00
MHDA- 2009/04/10 09:00
PMCR- 2010/03/15
CRDT- 2008/12/17 09:00
PHST- 2008/08/17 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2008/10/31 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2008/11/04 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2008/12/17 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2008/12/17 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/04/10 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2010/03/15 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - S0165-0270(08)00652-3 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.11.013 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Neurosci Methods. 2009 Mar 15;177(2):440-7. doi: 
      10.1016/j.jneumeth.2008.11.013. Epub 2008 Nov 27.