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The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Feb 1997TrkA high-affinity receptors are essential for the normal development of sympathetic paravertebral neurons and subpopulations of sensory neurons. Paravertebral...
TrkA high-affinity receptors are essential for the normal development of sympathetic paravertebral neurons and subpopulations of sensory neurons. Paravertebral sympathetic neurons and chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla share an ontogenetic origin, responsiveness to NGF, and expression of TrkA. Which aspects of development of the adrenal medulla might be regulated via TrkA are unknown. In the present study we demonstrate that mice deficient for TrkA, but not the neurotrophin receptor TrkB, show an early postnatal progressive reduction of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) enzymatic activity in the adrenal medulla and in preganglionic sympathetic neurons within the thoracic spinal cord, which are also significantly reduced in number. Quantitative determinations of specific AChE activity revealed a massive decrease (-62%) in the adrenal gland and a lesser, but still pronounced, reduction in the thoracic spinal cord (-40%). Other markers of the adrenal medulla and its innervation, including various neuropeptides, chromogranin B, secretogranin II, amine transporters, the catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase and PNMT, synaptophysin, and L1, essentially were unchanged. Interestingly, AChE immunoreactivity appeared unaltered, too. Preganglionic sympathetic neurons, in contrast to adrenal medullary cells, do not express TrkA. They must, therefore, be affected indirectly by the TrkA knock-out, possibly via a retrograde signal from chromaffin cells. Our results suggest that signaling via TrkA, but not TrkB, may be involved in the postnatal regulation of AChE activity in the adrenal medulla and its preganglionic nerves.
Topics: Acetylcholinesterase; Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Autonomic Fibers, Preganglionic; Catecholamines; Chromaffin Cells; Immunohistochemistry; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Receptor Protein-Tyrosine Kinases
PubMed: 8994044
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-03-00891.1997 -
Pflugers Archiv : European Journal of... Jan 2018From birth to death, catecholamine secretion undergoes continuous adjustments, allowing the organism to adapt to homeostasis changes. To cope with these stressful... (Review)
Review
From birth to death, catecholamine secretion undergoes continuous adjustments, allowing the organism to adapt to homeostasis changes. To cope with these stressful conditions, the neuroendocrine cells of the adrenal medulla play an immediate and crucial role. Chromaffin cell-driven catecholamine release is chiefly controlled by a neurogenic command that arises from the sympathetic nervous system, which releases acetylcholine at the splanchnic nerve terminal-chromaffin cell synapses. In addition to receiving several synaptic inputs individually, chromaffin cells are coupled by gap junctions. This raises interesting questions about the usefulness and the role of the gap junctional coupling within the chromaffin tissue, considering that secretory function is efficiently completed by the neurogenic pathway. The findings that gap junctions contribute to catecholamine secretion, both ex vivo and in vivo, provide some early answers, but their involvement in other cellular functions still remains unexplored. This review summarizes the molecular and physiological evidence that gap junctions can act either as an accelerator or a brake of stimulus-secretion coupling and discusses this functional plasticity in the context of specific needs in circulating catecholamine levels. It introduces the concept of gap junctions as sympathetic activity sensors and guardians of the functional integrity of the chromaffin tissue.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Autocrine Communication; Catecholamines; Chromaffin Cells; Gap Junctions; Humans; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 28735418
DOI: 10.1007/s00424-017-2032-9 -
Journal of Anatomy Apr 2015Little attention has been paid to adrenal sustentacular cells, and several major histology textbooks do not even describe them. This study presents a detailed...
Immunohistochemical analysis of sustentacular cells in the adrenal medulla, carotid body and sympathetic ganglion of mice using an antibody against brain-type fatty acid binding protein (B-FABP).
Little attention has been paid to adrenal sustentacular cells, and several major histology textbooks do not even describe them. This study presents a detailed morphological description of sustentacular cells using immuno-light microscopy and an antibody against brain-type fatty acid-binding protein. The immunopositive sustentacular cells and processes formed lattices with holes of various sizes and compactnesses or openness. In addition, weakly immunostained sheet-like structures with ill-defined contours were often associated with the processes and lattices. In the carotid body, which has traditionally been classified under the name of paraganglia in common with the adrenal medulla, immunostained sustentacular cell processes formed lattices in association with the weakly immunostained sheet-like structures, but the lattices with sheets were more compact and rigid than the adrenal medulla, and appeared like individually distinct compartments. In the ganglion, the immunostained satellite cell processes with the sheets tightly enclosed individual neurons. As a result, the immunostained sheet-like structures were regarded as en-face views of thinly flattened sustentacular cytoplasmic envelopes partially covering the chromaffin cells in the adrenal medulla, and widely in the carotid body in a way rather similar to the satellite cells in the ganglion. In brief, the terminal enclosing portions of adrenal sustentacular cell processes, in cut-views, were too thin/flat to be recognized as distinct lines in immuno-light microscopy because of its resolution limit. They are recognized in en-face views as entities of a substantially spacious extension in immuno-light microscopy.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Carotid Body; Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins; Ganglia, Sympathetic; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred ICR; Microscopy; Microscopy, Electron
PubMed: 25753214
DOI: 10.1111/joa.12285 -
Purinergic Signalling Apr 2024María Teresa Miras Portugal devoted most of her scientific life to the study of purinergic signalling. In an important part of her work, she used a model system: the... (Review)
Review
María Teresa Miras Portugal devoted most of her scientific life to the study of purinergic signalling. In an important part of her work, she used a model system: the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. It was in these cells that she identified diadenosine polyphosphates, from which she proceeded to the study of adrenomedullary purinome: nucleotide synthesis and degradation, adenosine transport, nucleotide uptake into chromaffin granules, exocytotic release of nucleotides and autocrine regulation of chromaffin cell function via purinoceptors. This short review will focus on the current state of knowledge of the purinoceptors of adrenal chromaffin cells, a subject to which María Teresa made seminal contributions and which she continued to study until the end of her scientific life.
Topics: Portugal; Chromaffin Cells; Adrenal Medulla; Receptors, Purinergic; Nucleotides
PubMed: 36941507
DOI: 10.1007/s11302-023-09934-1 -
Scientific Reports Mar 2019Adrenal chromaffin cells and sympathetic neurons synthesize and release catecholamines, and both cell types are derived from neural crest precursors. However, they have...
Adrenal chromaffin cells and sympathetic neurons synthesize and release catecholamines, and both cell types are derived from neural crest precursors. However, they have different developmental histories, with sympathetic neurons derived directly from neural crest precursors while adrenal chromaffin cells arise from neural crest-derived cells that express Schwann cell markers. We have sought to identify the genes, including imprinted genes, which regulate the development of the two cell types in mice. We developed a method of separating the two cell types as early as E12.5, using differences in expression of enhanced yellow fluorescent protein driven from the tyrosine hydroxylase gene, and then used RNA sequencing to confirm the characteristic molecular signatures of the two cell types. We identified genes differentially expressed by adrenal chromaffin cells and sympathetic neurons. Deletion of a gene highly expressed by adrenal chromaffin cells, NIK-related kinase, a gene on the X-chromosome, results in reduced expression of adrenaline-synthesizing enzyme, phenyl-N-methyl transferase, by adrenal chromaffin cells and changes in cell cycle dynamics. Finally, many imprinted genes are up-regulated in chromaffin cells and may play key roles in their development.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Bacterial Proteins; Cell Separation; Chromaffin Cells; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene Ontology; Genes, X-Linked; Genomic Imprinting; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Luminescent Proteins; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Knockout; Mice, Transgenic; Neural Stem Cells; Pregnancy; Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; RNA-Seq
PubMed: 30850723
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-40501-0 -
Journal of Neurochemistry Dec 2016The pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-1β/α modulate catecholamine secretion, and long-term gene regulation, in chromaffin cells of...
The pro-inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-1β/α modulate catecholamine secretion, and long-term gene regulation, in chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. Since interleukin-6 (IL6) also plays a key integrative role during inflammation, we have examined its ability to affect both tyrosine hydroxylase activity and adrenomedullary gene transcription in cultured bovine chromaffin cells. IL6 caused acute tyrosine/threonine phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), and serine/tyrosine phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). Consistent with ERK1/2 activation, IL6 rapidly increased tyrosine hydroxylase phosphorylation (serine-31) and activity, as well as up-regulated genes, encoding secreted proteins including galanin, vasoactive intestinal peptide, gastrin-releasing peptide, and parathyroid hormone-like hormone. The effects of IL6 on the entire bovine chromaffin cell transcriptome were compared to those generated by G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) agonists (histamine and pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide) and the cytokine receptor agonists (interferon-α and tumor necrosis factor-α). Of 90 genes up-regulated by IL6, only 16 are known targets of IL6 in the immune system. Those remaining likely represent a combination of novel IL6/STAT3 targets, ERK1/2 targets and, potentially, IL6-dependent genes activated by IL6-induced transcription factors, such as hypoxia-inducible factor 1α. Notably, genes induced by IL6 include both neuroendocrine-specific genes activated by GPCR agonists, and transcripts also activated by the cytokines. These results suggest an integrative role for IL6 in the fine-tuning of the chromaffin cell response to a wide range of physiological and paraphysiological stressors, particularly when immune and endocrine stimuli converge.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Cattle; Cells, Cultured; Chromaffin Cells; Interleukin-6; MAP Kinase Signaling System; STAT3 Transcription Factor; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 27770433
DOI: 10.1111/jnc.13870 -
Journal of Nuclear Medicine : Official... Apr 1981An evaluation of radioiodinated meta-iodobenzylguanidine (m-IBG) as an adrenomedullary imaging agent is reported in 15 rhesus monkeys. Scintiscans of the monkey adrenal... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
An evaluation of radioiodinated meta-iodobenzylguanidine (m-IBG) as an adrenomedullary imaging agent is reported in 15 rhesus monkeys. Scintiscans of the monkey adrenal medulla have been obtained with [123I]- and [m-131I]IBG at 2-6 days after injection. The imaging superiority of m-IBG over its positional isomer, para-iodobenzylguanidine (p-IBG), is documented in both dogs and monkeys. Administration of reserpine, a depletor of catecholamine stores, markedly lowers the [m-131I]-IBG content of the dog adrenal medulla, but the adrenergic blocking agents phenoxybenzamine and propranolol have no effect. Subcellular fractionation of the dog's adrenal medullae reveals that m-IBG is sequestered mainly in the chromaffin storage granules. The results of this study suggest that radioiodinated m-IBG, previously reported to image the primate myocardium, also merits evaluation as a clinical radiopharmaceutical for the adrenal medulla.
Topics: 3-Iodobenzylguanidine; Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Chromaffin Granules; Dogs; Female; Guanidines; Iodine Radioisotopes; Iodobenzenes; Macaca mulatta; Male; Radionuclide Imaging; Reserpine; Tissue Distribution
PubMed: 7205383
DOI: No ID Found -
Pflugers Archiv : European Journal of... Jan 2018Adrenal chromaffin cells (CCs) are the main source of circulating catecholamines (CAs) that regulate the body response to stress. Release of CAs is controlled... (Review)
Review
Adrenal chromaffin cells (CCs) are the main source of circulating catecholamines (CAs) that regulate the body response to stress. Release of CAs is controlled neurogenically by the activity of preganglionic sympathetic neurons through trains of action potentials (APs). APs in CCs are generated by robust depolarization following the activation of nicotinic and muscarinic receptors that are highly expressed in CCs. Bovine, rat, mouse, and human CCs also express a composite array of Na, K, and Ca channels that regulate the resting potential, shape the APs, and set the frequency of AP trains. AP trains of increasing frequency induce enhanced release of CAs. If the primary role of CCs is simply to relay preganglionic nerve commands to CA secretion, why should they express such a diverse set of ion channels? An answer to this comes from recent observations that, like in neurons, CCs undergo complex firing patterns of APs suggesting the existence of an intrinsic CC excitability (non-neurogenically controlled). Recent work has shown that CCs undergo occasional or persistent burst firing elicited by altered physiological conditions or deletion of pore-regulating auxiliary subunits. In this review, we aim to give a rationale to the role of the many ion channel types regulating CC excitability. We will first describe their functional properties and then analyze how they contribute to pacemaking, AP shape, and burst waveforms. We will also furnish clear indications on missing ion conductances that may be involved in pacemaking and highlight the contribution of the crucial channels involved in burst firing.
Topics: Action Potentials; Adrenal Medulla; Animals; Biological Clocks; Chromaffin Cells; Humans; Ion Channels
PubMed: 28776261
DOI: 10.1007/s00424-017-2048-1 -
Hypertension Research : Official... Feb 2003Adrenomedullin (AM) and peptides of the proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP20) family are multifunctional peptides abundantly expressed in the adrenal medulla.... (Review)
Review
Adrenomedullin (AM) and peptides of the proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP20) family are multifunctional peptides abundantly expressed in the adrenal medulla. These peptides are released by regulated exocytosis along with catecholamines upon stimulation of adrenal chromaffin cells. They are also released gradually during culture, and this release is stimulated by a 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent pathway. The expression and release of AM increase under hypoxia in chromaffin cells. The expression of AM in pheochromocytoma PC12 cells is reduced during neuronal differentiation with nerve growth factor. On the other hand, PAMP20 and PAMP12 suppress catecholamine release and synthesis by interfering with nicotinic cholinergic receptors. AM increases blood flow in the adrenal gland, and causes a gradual release of catecholamine, but does not modify regulated exocytosis upon the stimulation of cells. Current data indicate that the expression of these peptides is regulated by intracellular signaling pathways, and changes under various physiological and pathological conditions. AM and PAMP20 family peptides have distinct physiological functions. PAMP20 and PAMP12 are endogenous peptides that modulate chromaffin cell function in an autocrine manner, whereas AM may mainly regulate vascular cell function in a paracrine manner.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Adrenomedullin; Animals; Chromaffin Cells; Humans; Peptide Fragments; Peptides; Proteins
PubMed: 12630814
DOI: 10.1291/hypres.26.s71 -
The American Journal of Pathology Sep 1990The authors previously evaluated the expression of a panel of chromaffin-related genes during histogenesis of the human adrenal medulla. In these studies, chromaffin and...
The authors previously evaluated the expression of a panel of chromaffin-related genes during histogenesis of the human adrenal medulla. In these studies, chromaffin and nonchromaffin adrenal neuroblasts were identified. To better characterize these nonchromaffin neuroblasts, the authors evaluated two additional markers: HNK-1, an antibody recognizing the migratory neural crest cell; and S-100, a protein expressed by sustentacular cells of the adrenal medulla. HNK-1 immunoreactivity was found in both chromaffin and nonchromaffin cell types at different times during development, marking the nonchromaffin lineage during the second trimester of gestation as well as the chromaffin lineage in the neonatal period. In addition, S-100 expression was noted in some nonchromaffin neuroblasts, and sustentacular cells were first identified at approximately 28 weeks of gestational age. These data suggest a model of human adrenal medullary histogenesis that incorporates the chromaffin, ganglionic, and sustentacular lineages known to constitute the adult adrenal medulla.
Topics: Adrenal Medulla; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Biomarkers; Cell Adhesion Molecules, Neuronal; Child, Preschool; Chromaffin System; Humans; Immunoenzyme Techniques; Infant; Infant, Newborn; S100 Proteins; Staining and Labeling
PubMed: 1698027
DOI: No ID Found