3D architecture and a bicellular mechanism of touch detection in mechanosensory corpuscle

Mechanosensory corpuscles detect transient touch and vibration in the skin of vertebrates, enabling precise sensation of the physical environment. The corpuscle contains a mechanoreceptor afferent surrounded by lamellar cells (LCs), but corpuscular ultrastructure and the role of LCs in touch detecti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science advances 2023-09, Vol.9 (37), p.eadi4147
Main Authors: Nikolaev, Yury A, Ziolkowski, Luke H, Pang, Song, Li, Wei-Ping, Feketa, Viktor V, Xu, C Shan, Gracheva, Elena O, Bagriantsev, Sviatoslav N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials
Animals
Calcium
Neurophysiology
Neuroscience
SciAdv r-articles
Skin
Touch
Touch Perception
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Summary:Mechanosensory corpuscles detect transient touch and vibration in the skin of vertebrates, enabling precise sensation of the physical environment. The corpuscle contains a mechanoreceptor afferent surrounded by lamellar cells (LCs), but corpuscular ultrastructure and the role of LCs in touch detection are unknown. We report the three-dimensional architecture of the avian Meissner (Grandry) corpuscle acquired using enhanced focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy and machine learning-based segmentation. The corpuscle comprises a stack of LCs interdigitated with terminal endings from two afferents. Simultaneous electrophysiological recordings from both cell types revealed that mechanosensitive LCs use calcium influx to trigger action potentials in the afferent and thus serve as physiological touch sensors in the skin. The elaborate architecture and bicellular sensory mechanism in the corpuscles, which comprises the afferents and LCs, create the capacity for nuanced encoding of the submodalities of touch.
ISSN:2375-2548
2375-2548
DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adi4147