MECHANOSENSORY SLVS: A NOVEL SENSORY MODULATORY SYSTEM

Mechanosensory SLVs: a novel sensory modulatory system

We aim to understand a signalling system we've recently found in nerves that sense muscle length. The brain needs this information to control movement and posture. We now think all sensory nerves of this type use this new system, including nerves monitoring blood pressure, touch and even pain. Identifying new ways to reduce pain would greatly improve the quality of life of our increasingly aging population. Electrical nerve impulses are generated when special proteins on the nerve endings respond to changes in muscle length. However, blocking our new system turns off the response of these proteins. We want to know why this control mechanism is important. Our new findings show that as well as generating electrical impulses, muscle stretch also causes these nerve endings to release a chemical, glutamate. Glutamate is usually released to carry information from one nerve cell to another. But sensory endings receive information, so why do they release glutamate? The information seems to be going the wrong way. We will now study stretch-sensitive endings in rat muscles to answer the following questions: 'How is glutamate release controlled?', 'Is it essential?', 'Where are the receptors that detect the glutamate?' and 'What signal pathway do these receptors activate?'.