Mucosa-Dependent, Stretch-Sensitive Spontaneous Activity in Seminal Vesicle.

Mucosa-Dependent, Stretch-Sensitive Spontaneous Activity in Seminal Vesicle. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1124:217-231 Authors: Takeya M, Hayashi T, Hashitani H, Takano M Abstract Seminal vesicles (SVs), a pair of male accessory glands, contract upon sympathetic nerve excitation during ejaculation while developing spontaneous phasic constrictions in the inter-ejaculatory storage phase. Recently, the fundamental role of the mucosa in generating spontaneous activity in SV of the guinea pig has been revealed. Stretching the mucosa-intact but not mucosa-denuded SV smooth muscle evokes spontaneous phasic contractions arising from action potential firing triggered by electrical slow waves and associated Ca2+ flashes. These spontaneous events primarily depend on sarco-endoplasmic reticulum (SR/ER) Ca2+ handling linked with the opening of Ca2+-activated chloride channels (CaCCs) resulting in the generation of slow waves. Slow waves in mucosa-intact SV smooth muscle are abolished upon blockade of gap junctions, suggesting that seminal smooth muscle cells are driven by cells distributed in the mucosa. In the SV mucosal preparations dissected free from the smooth muscle layer, a population of cells located just beneath the epithelium develop spontaneous Ca2+ transients relying on SR/ER Ca2+ handling. In the lamina propria of the SV mucosa, vimentin-immunoreactive interstitial cells including platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRα)-immuno...
Source: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology - Category: Research Tags: Adv Exp Med Biol Source Type: research