Spinal afferent innervation in flat-mounts of the rat stomach: anterograde tracing.

The dorsal root ganglia (DRG) project spinal afferent axons to the stomach. However, the distribution and morphology of spinal afferent axons in the stomach have not been well characterized. In this study, we used a combination of state-of-the-art techniques, including anterograde tracer injection into the left DRG T7-T11, avidin-biotin and Cuprolinic Blue labeling, Zeiss M2 Imager, and Neurolucida to characterize spinal afferent axons in flat-mounts of the whole rat stomach muscular wall.

Topographical distribution and morphology of SP-IR axons in the antrum, pylorus, and duodenum of mice.

Substance-P (SP) is a commonly used marker of nociceptive afferent axons, and it plays an important role in a variety of physiological functions including the regulation of motility, gut secretion, and vascular flow. Previously, we found that SP-immunoreactive (SP-IR) axons densely innervated the pyloric antrum of the flat-mount of the mouse whole stomach muscular layer. However, the regional distribution and morphology of SP-IR axons in the submucosa and mucosa were not well documented.

Apheresis of Deceased Donors as a New Source of Mobilized Peripheral Blood Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Transplant Tolerance.

Background: Solid organ transplantation is the therapy of choice for many patients with end-stage organ failure; however, recipients must remain on lifelong immunosuppression, leaving them susceptible to infections and cancer. The study of transplant tolerance to prolong graft survival in the absence of immunosuppression has been restricted to recipients of living donor allografts; however, deceased donors significantly outnumber living donors. Mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) from the bone marrow to peripheral blood (PB) could allow PB-HSCs to be used to induce tolerance in deceased donor kidney recipients; however, a major concern is the well-known concomitant mobilization of immune cells into the liver.