ArticlePloS one2009
Rat Merkel cells are mechanoreceptors and osmoreceptors.
Article in PloS one, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Calcium regulation of muscle spindle mechanosensory afferent function.Experimental physiology · 2025Article
- A helping hand: roles for accessory cells in the sense of touch across species.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2024Review
- How Merkel cells transduce mechanical stimuli: A biophysical model of Merkel cells.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Review
- Transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 mediates sour taste sensing via type III taste cell differentiation.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Mechanotransduction in epidermal Merkel cells.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2015Review
- Diversification and specialization of touch receptors in skin.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2014Review
- Behavioral model of itch, alloknesis, pain and allodynia in the lower hindlimb and correlative responses of lumbar dorsal horn neurons in the mouse.Neuroscience · 2014Article
- TRPs in taste and chemesthesis.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2014Review
- Neurotransmitters and synaptic components in the Merkel cell-neurite complex, a gentle-touch receptor.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2013Review
- 4α-phorbol 12,13-didecanoate activates cultured mouse dorsal root ganglia neurons independently of TRPV4.British journal of pharmacology · 2013Article
- Shear mechanical force induces an increase of intracellular Ca2+ in cultured Merkel cells prepared from rat vibrissal hair follicles.Journal of neurophysiology · 2011Article
- The cell biology of touch.The Journal of cell biology · 2010Review
- Importance of non-selective cation channel TRPV4 interaction with cytoskeleton and their reciprocal regulations in cultured cells.PloS one · 2010Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Merkel cells (MCs) associated with nerve terminals constitute MC-neurite complexes, which are involved in slowly-adapting type I mechanoreception. Although MCs are known to express voltage-gated Ca2+ channels and hypotonic-induced membrane deformation is known to lead to Ca2+ transients, whether MCs initiate mechanotransduction is currently unknown. To answer to this question, rat MCs were transfected with a reporter vector, which enabled their identification.Their properties were investigated through electrophysiological studies. Voltage-gated K+, Ca2+ and Ca2+-activated K+ (KCa)channels were identified, as previously described. Here, we also report the activation of Ca2+ channels by histamine and their inhibition by acetylcholine. As a major finding, we demonstrated that direct mechanical stimulations induced strong inward Ca2+ currents in MCs. Depolarizations were dependent on the strength and the length of the stimulation. Moreover, touch-evoked currents were inhibited by the stretch channel antagonist gadolinium. These data confirm the mechanotransduction capabilities of MCs. Furthermore, we found that activation of the osmoreceptor TRPV4 in FM1-43-labeled MCs provoked neurosecretory granule exocytosis. Since FM1-43 blocks mechanosensory channels, this suggests that hypo-osmolarity activates MCs in the absence of mechanotransduction. Thus, mechanotransduction and osmoreception are likely distinct pathways.
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