ReviewPflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology2015
Mechanotransduction in epidermal Merkel cells.
Review in Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Lamellar Cells of Vertebrate Meissner and Pacinian Corpuscles: Development, Characterization, and Functions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Piezo2 in Mechanosensory Biology: From Physiological Homeostasis to Disease-Promoting Mechanisms.Cell proliferation · 2026Review
- Contributions and future potential of animal models for geroscience research on sensory systems.GeroScience · 2025Review
- Article
- Sensory cells in tunicates: insights into mechanoreceptor evolution.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- How Merkel cells transduce mechanical stimuli: A biophysical model of Merkel cells.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Reducing Merkel cell activity in the whisker follicle disrupts cortical encoding of whisker movement amplitude and velocity.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2022Article
- Review
- Continuous, multidimensional coding of 3D complex tactile stimuli by primary sensory neurons of the vibrissal system.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Innocuous pressure sensation requires A-type afferents but not functional ΡΙΕΖΟ2 channels in humans.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Mechanics to pre-process information for the fine tuning of mechanoreceptors.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2019Review
- Diagnostic accuracy of a panel of immunohistochemical and molecular markers to distinguish Merkel cell carcinoma from other neuroendocrine carcinomas.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2019Article
- Merkel Cells Release Glutamate Following Mechanical Stimulation: Implication of Glutamate in the Merkel Cell-Neurite Complex.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2019Article
- Review
- Neural Basis of Touch and Proprioception in Primate Cortex.Comprehensive Physiology · 2018Review
- A Novel Method for Training Mice in Visuo-Tactile 3-D Object Discrimination and Recognition.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2018Article
- Merkel cells and Meissner's corpuscles in human digital skin display Piezo2 immunoreactivity.Journal of anatomy · 2017Article
- Mechanosensitive Piezo Channels in the Gastrointestinal Tract.Current topics in membranes · 2017Review
- Mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo2 is important for enterochromaffin cell response to mechanical forces.The Journal of physiology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The cellular and molecular basis of vertebrate touch reception remains least understood among the traditional five senses. Somatosensory afferents that innervate the skin encode distinct tactile qualities, such as flutter, slip, and pressure. Gentle touch is thought to be transduced by somatosensory afferents whose tactile end organs selectively filter mechanical stimuli. These tactile end organs comprise afferent terminals in association with non-neuronal cell types such as Merkel cells, keratinocytes, and Schwann cells. An open question is whether these non-neuronal cells serve primarily as passive mechanical filters or whether they actively participate in mechanosensory transduction. This question has been most extensively studied in Merkel cells, which are epidermal cells that complex with sensory afferents in regions of high tactile acuity such as fingertips, whisker follicles, and touch domes. Merkel cell-neurite complexes mediate slowly adapting type I (SAI) responses, which encode sustained pressure and represent object features with high fidelity. How Merkel cells contribute to unique SAI firing patterns has been debated for decades; however, three recent studies in rodent models provide some direct answers. First, whole-cell recordings demonstrate that Merkel cells are touch-sensitive cells with fast, mechanically activated currents that require Piezo2. Second, optogenetics and intact recordings show that Merkel cells mediate sustained SAI firing. Finally, loss-of-function studies in transgenic mouse models reveal that SAI afferents are also touch sensitive. Together, these studies identify molecular mechanisms of mechanotransduction in Merkel cells, reveal unexpected functions for these cells in touch, and support a revised, two-receptor site model of mechanosensory transduction.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.