University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Animal Medicine; Department of Cell Biology
Publication Date
2-4-2014
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Animals; Biopsy; Female; Genotype; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Nerve Fibers; Neurogenesis; Nociceptors; Sacrococcygeal Region; Sensory Receptor Cells; Tail
Disciplines
Animal Structures | Developmental Biology | Developmental Neuroscience | Genetics | Neurosciences
Abstract
A common method of genotyping mice is via tissue obtained from tail biopsies. However, there is no available information on the temporal development of sensory neurons in the tail and how their presence or absence might affect the age for performing tail biopsies. The goals of this study were to determine if afferent sensory neurons, and in particular nociceptive neurons, are present in the coccygeal vertebrae at or near the time of birth and if not, when they first can be visualized on or in those vertebrae. Using toluidine blue neuronal staining, transmission electron microscopy, and calcitonin-related gene peptide immunostaining, we found proximal to distal maturation of coccygeal nerve growth in the C57BL/6J mouse. Single nerve bundles were first seen on postpartum day (PPD) 0. On PPD 3 presumptive nociceptive sensory nerve fibers were seen entering the vertebral perichondrium. Neural development continued through the last time point (PPD 7) but at no time were neural fibers seen entering the body of the vertebrae. The effect of age on the development of pain perception in the neonatal mouse is discussed.
Rights and Permissions
© 2014 Silverman, Hendricks. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1371/journal.pone.0088158
Source
PLoS One. 2014 Feb 4;9(2):e88158. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088158. eCollection 2014. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
Journal/Book/Conference Title
PloS one
PubMed ID
24505409
Repository Citation
Silverman, Jerald and Hendricks, Gregory M., "Sensory neuron development in mouse coccygeal vertebrae and its relationship to tail biopsies for genotyping" (2014). University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications. 435.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/faculty_pubs/435
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Animal Structures Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Developmental Neuroscience Commons, Genetics Commons, Neurosciences Commons