Disease relevance of Visceral Afferents

• Previous studies have shown that histamine is increased in coronary sinus blood during myocardial ischemia and that this autacoid stimulates abdominal visceral afferents [1].
• These results suggest that dehydration and/or the activation of visceral afferent inputs may contribute to the elevation of plasma AVP and the upregulation of AVP gene expression in the PVN and the SON of the Li-induced diabetes insipidus rat [2].
• CONCLUSIONS: Intraperitoneal capsaicin treatment 2 days prior to abdominal surgery resulted in immediate recovery of postoperative gastric motility, indicating an important role for serosal visceral afferent nerve fibers in the mediation of postoperative gastric ileus [3].
• The involvement of visceral afferent fibers and 5-HT3 receptors in the emesis induced by cisplatin was studied in beagle dogs [4].
• Ischemically sensitive visceral afferents: importance of H+ derived from lactic acid and hypercapnia [5].

Psychiatry related information on Visceral Afferents

• Both ablation of visceral afferents and blockade of NMDA receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission by MK-801 result in overconsumption of sucrose solution and other food, apparently by interrupting visceral signals and thus delaying satiation [6].

High impact information on Visceral Afferents

• Recently, however, it has been suggested that vasopressin acts mainly at peripheral receptor systems and influences behavioural mechanisms by altering visceral afferent signals [7].
• RESULTS: Reflex decreases in blood pressure and heart rate indicative of visceral afferent activation were greater in previously shocked rats than in controls [8].
• BACKGROUND & AIMS: Cerebral evoked potential (EP) responses to visceral stimulation represent a powerful method to assess visceral afferent pathways [9].
• Drugs acting on visceral afferent pathways (octreotide and granisetron) did not modify this reflex, whereas the spasmolytic drug phloroglucinol inhibited phasic contractions without affecting tone [10].
• Perception of thermal or electrical cutaneous stimulation was unaffected by octreotide showing selectivity for visceral afferent pathways [11].

Chemical compound and disease context of Visceral Afferents

• Our results suggest that capsaicin-sensitive visceral afferent C-fibers, presumably of the submucosa, play an important role in mediating postoperative ileus [12].
• Hypoxia, bradykinin, and prostaglandins stimulate ischemically sensitive visceral afferents [13].
• Clearly the abdominal visceral innervation plays a complex and major role in the emesis produced by these two cytotoxic drugs; circumstantial evidence suggests that 5-HT M-receptors on visceral afferent nerves mediate this action, but other possibly central sites of action of the 5-HT M-receptor antagonists cannot be excluded [14].
• Intracolonic administration of acetic acid (0.6%) resulted in a significantly increased number of abdominal contractions in response to colorectal balloon distension from 5.8 +/- 1.2 in controls to 16.6 +/- 1.0 in acetic acid-treated animals (P < 0.05), evidencing sensitization of visceral afferent pathways and subsequently visceral hyperalgesia [15].

Biological context of Visceral Afferents

• We hypothesized that visceral afferent activity induced by systemic administration of epinephrine would enhance the processing of auditory stimuli as evidenced by the cerebral auditory evoked response [16].
• The data are compatible with the idea that acid and hyperosmolal solutions release CGRP at the peripheral terminals of visceral afferents in the upper gastrointestinal tract which in turn modifies motility to slow gastric emptying [17].
• There is evidence for a pathway involving small intestinal CCK-producing entero-endocrine cells and visceral afferent nerve fibers in signaling the effect of luminal nutrients on gastrointestinal and food intake regulation [18].

Anatomical context of Visceral Afferents

• Phox2b controls the development of peripheral chemoreceptors and afferent visceral pathways [19].
• Our findings demonstrate that SII is the primary cortical target of visceral afferents originating in the esophagus [20].
• These data provide the first demonstration that BDNF can substitute for peripheral target support of sensory neuron survival in vivo and indicate that trkB ligands may be particularly important for development of visceral afferents involved in cardiorespiratory control [21].
• Sensitization of visceral afferents to bradykinin in rat jejunum in vitro [22].
• Recent work on the excitatory action of capsaicin on somatic and visceral afferent neurones shows that depolarization is selective for C-fibre polymodal nociceptor afferents and involves opening a non-selective cation channel [23].

Associations of Visceral Afferents with chemical compounds

• These data suggest that H2O2 activates abdominal visceral afferents to reflexly stimulate the cardiovascular system by a mechanism involving hydroxyl radicals [24].
• Thus, although SP, SOM, and CCK may be contained within a population of sacral visceral afferents, they must be common to afferent systems in other segments as well [25].
• This study investigated the role played by endogenous nitric oxide in the regulation of esophageal mucosal blood flow at rest and in response to luminal capsaicin, a specific stimulant for visceral afferent nerves, as well as calcitonin gene-related peptide, and the bile salt deoxycholate [26].
• 2. We measured the depression of BK-induced PE elicited by graded stimulation of spinal visceral afferents with intraperitoneal capsaicin and by intrathecal nicotine in vagus-intact rats and in rats in which specific vagal branches were selectively interrupted [27].
• The responses of visceral afferent nerves to bradykinin [28].

Gene context of Visceral Afferents

• CONCLUSIONS: These data show that ASIC3 makes a critical positive contribution to mechanosensitivity in three out of four classes of visceral afferents [29].
• Cholecystokinin and neurotensin are present in fibres innervating the parabrachial nucleus and have previously been shown to modulate the flow of visceral afferent information through the parabrachial nucleus to the cortex in the rat [30].
• These data demonstrate the presence of TrkA and TrkC in the adult nodose and petrosal ganglia and provide a substrate for the ongoing neurotrophin-induced regulation of these placodally derived visceral afferent neurons [31].
• The results of this study suggest that group III mGluRs are the primary mGluR subtype expressed in visceral afferent neurons and that these receptors may be involved in afferent central transmission [32].
• These results suggest that estrogen is released into the PBN by an increase in visceral afferent traffic, however, alterations in estrogen receptor populations in the PBN may contribute to an attenuated physiological role of estrogen in the PBN of male and saline-replaced ovariectomized female rats [33].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Visceral Afferents

• (i) Interruption of the coeliac branches mimicked the effect of total subdiaphragmatic vagotomy in potentiating the depression of BK-induced PE generated by intrathecal nicotine and by stimulation of spinal visceral afferents [27].
• These limited data support the hypothesis that human visceral afferents express KOR and that peripherally restricted KOR agonists produce analgesia in patients with chronic visceral pain [34].
• They also suggest that the initial BP level is unlikely to be an important factor in determining whether the activation of capsaicin-sensitive visceral afferents will produce hypotensive or hypertensive effects in this animal model [35].
• These results suggest that the abdominal visceral afferent fibers and possibly peripheral 5-HT4 receptors play an important role in the vomiting induced by oral administration of copper sulfate in dogs [36].
• Visceral afferent input to the neurons was elicited during electrical stimulation of cardiopulmonary sympathetic afferent fibers and following injection of bradykinin into the left atrium of the heart [37].

References