C-LTMRs evoke wet dog shakes via the spinoparabrachial pathway

2024/11/07 by Dawei Zhang, Josef Turecek, Seungwon Choi +4 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Neuroscience · Medicine · #Ion Channels and Receptors #Pain Mechanisms and Treatments #Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics

paper · doi:10.1126/science.adq8834

Abstract

Many hairy mammals perform rapid oscillations of their body, called wet dog shakes, to remove water and irritants from their back hairy skin. The somatosensory mechanisms that underlie this behavior are unclear. We report that Piezo2-dependent mechanosensation mediates wet dog shakes evoked by water or oil droplets applied to back hairy skin of mice. Unmyelinated C-fiber low-threshold mechanoreceptors (C-LTMRs) were activated by oil droplets, and their optogenetic activation elicited wet dog shakes. Ablation of C-LTMRs attenuated this behavior. Moreover, C-LTMRs synaptically couple to spinoparabrachial neurons, and optogenetically inhibiting spinoparabrachial neuron synapses and excitatory neurons in the parabrachial nucleus impaired both oil droplet- and C-LTMR-evoked wet dog shakes. Thus, a C-LTMR-spinoparabrachial pathway promotes wet dog shakes for removal of water and mechanical irritants from back hairy skin.

Cited by

• Neural Regulation of Skin Immunity
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• Identification of VGLUT3-expressing LTMRs-recruited spinal circuits for itch inhibition. [europepmc]
• Targeting Tmem63b and Piezo2 in C-fiber low-threshold mechanoreceptors: Limitation of Vglut3-IRES-Cre. [europepmc]
• Cold- and TRPM8-dependent shaking in mammals and birds. [europepmc]

Discussions

• Why do wet dogs shake themselves dry? Neuroscience [finally] has an answer [lemmy, 83 points, 22 comments]

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