Journal article
Polysialic Acid Regulates Sympathetic Outflow by Facilitating Information Transfer within the Nucleus of the Solitary Tract
Phillip Bokiniec, Shila Shahbazian, Stuart J McDougall, Britt A Berning, Delfine Cheng, Ida J Llewellyn-Smith, Peter GR Burke, Simon McMullan, Martina Muehlenhoff, Herbert Hildebrandt, Flip Braet, Mark Connor, Nicolle H Packer, Ann K Goodchild
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE | SOC NEUROSCIENCE | Published : 2017
Abstract
Expression of the large extracellular glycan, polysialic acid (polySia), is restricted in the adult, to brain regions exhibiting high levels of plasticity or remodeling, including the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS). The NTS, located in the dorsal brainstem, receives constant viscerosensory afferent traffic as well as input from central regions controlling sympathetic nerve activity, respiration, gastrointestinal functions, hormonal release, and behavior. Our aims were to determine the ultrastructural location of polySia in the NTS and the functional effects of enzymatic removal of polySia, both in vitro and in vivo polySia immunoreactivity was fou..
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Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Awarded by Hillcrest Foundation
Funding Acknowledgements
P.B. is a scholar of the Australian Course in Advanced Neuroscience. This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia APP1028183 and APP1030301, Australian Research Council DP120100920, and Hillcrest Foundation FR2014/0781. We thank Profs. John Bekkers and Javier Stern for helpful discussions regarding data collection and interpretation: Dr. Lama Bou-Farah for assisting in preliminary data collection; Prot Rita Gerardy-Schahn for her valuable contribution; and Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility (http://ammrf.org.au/) node at the University of Sydney for facilities and scientific and technical assistance.