Me. Martenson et al., ENHANCEMENT OF RAT TRIGEMINAL GANGLION NEURON RESPONSES TO PIPERINE IN A LOW-PH ENVIRONMENT AND BLOCK BY CAPSAZEPINE, Brain research, 761(1), 1997, pp. 71-76
Both trigeminal and spinal ganglion neurons show a strong potentiation
of responses to the irritant capsaicin in an acidic environment. The
present study revealed that there is also a strong interaction between
protons and piperine, another vanilloid irritant. We studied the mech
anism of the interaction between protons and piperine. Whole-cell patc
h clamp recordings were performed on cultured adult rat trigeminal gan
glion (TG) neurons voltage-clamped near their resting membrane potenti
al (-60 mV). Piperine (10 mu M) caused a sustained net inward current
associated with either an increase or decrease in membrane conductance
. When protons and piperine were co-applied, the membrane currents evo
ked in piperine-sensitive TG neurons far exceeded the algebraic sum of
the responses to the two stimuli applied in isolation. Capsazepine bl
ocked the response of TG neurons to piperine at both physiological and
acidic pH. in the presence of capsazepine, responses to the mixture o
f piperine and protons resembled the response to the low pH stimulus a
pplied alone. Capsazepine had no effect on the sustained proton-induce
d current. These findings suggest that protons enhance the piperine cu
rrent by altering the vanilloid receptor/channel complex or increasing
the length constant of the space clamp. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V
.