CARBA PROSTACYCLIN ENHANCES THE CAPSAICIN-INDUCED COBALT-LOADING OF RAT SENSORY NEURONS GROWN IN CULTURE

Sensory neurons isolated from the dorsal root ganglia of embryonic rat s and grown in culture are distributed into two populations based on c ross-sectional areas and sensitivity to capsaicin. Of the total neuron al population, about 48% of the neurons are labelled by cobalt in the presence of 1 mu M capsaicin. The distribution of the small-sized neur ons coincides with that of the capsaicin-cobalt-labelled neurons. When a lower concentration of capsaicin (100 nM) is used, pretreatment of sensory neurons with carba prostacyclin, a stable analog of prostaglan din I-2, produces a three-fold enhancement in the number of neurons th at are cobalt-labelled by capsaicin compared with that in the absence of carba prostacyclin.