Dorsal root ganglion stimulation to modulate mechanosensitive colorectal afferent transmission in mice

Study Purpose: The objective of this study is to systematically determine the underlying mechanism of afferent transmission block by electrical stimulation of the dorsal root ganglia (L6 in mice).

Data Collection: The dataset consists of functional responses of dorsal root ganglia (DRG) stimulation on L6 afferent transmission in an ex vivo preparation with L6 spinal nerve (SN), DRG and dorsal root (DR) in continuity. Action potentials were evoked by electrical stimulation of the SN. Synchronized electrical stimulation was delivered to the DRG to assess the blocking effect on L6 afferent neural transmission.

Primary Conclusion: Synchronized SN and DRG stimulation reveals a progressive increase in conduction delay by DRG stimulation, suggesting activity-dependent slowing in blocked afferent fibers.

Curator's Notes

Experimental Design: The L6 dorsal root ganglion (DRG) with an attached dorsal root (DR) and a segment of the spinal nerve (SN) was carefully harvested in continuity and transferred to a custom-built recording chamber consisting of a tissue chamber and an adjacent recording chamber. The L6 DRG was placed in the tissue chamber perfused with oxygenated Krebs solution at 30°C, and the DR was gently pulled into the recording chamber filled with mineral oil to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the recording. The L6 DR was carefully split into fine filaments (∼10 μm) to achieve single-fiber recordings from individual afferent. A DRG stimulation protocol consisted of 30 pulse trains at 0.5 Hz train frequency and 0.5-second intertrain intervals (60 seconds in total). Pulse frequencies for DRG stimulation were set to be one of the following: 10, 50, 100, 500, or 1000 Hz. Action potentials evoked by CRD stimulation was recorded from split DR filaments and processed off-line to identify individual action potentials and compute CV using customized MATLAB programs.

Completeness: This dataset is part of a larger study:"Topology and molecular profiles of nociceptive DRG neurons innervating distal colon and rectum"

Subjects & Samples: Male (n=9) and female (n=5) mice (RRID:IMSR_TAC:b6) 8-13 weeks old were used in this study.

Primary vs derivative data: Primary data is organized in folders by the subject ID and contains Matlab files with a single-fiber action potential recordings(.mat). There is no derivative data folder.