Effects Of Calcium Channel On The Repetitive Firing Of Dorsal Root Ganglion Neuron

Dorsal root ganglion is the primary affarent neuron transducting the sensory information. In recently years, more interests have been focused on the properties and chemosensitivity of the somata due to the following reasons: the somata possesses some properties as its central and peripheral terminals, and more importantly, the physiologically less firing neurons may arise spontaneous discharges because of decreased exciting threshold, increased excitability following somata or peripheral nerve damage. These observation have prompted the close relationship between the hyperexcitability of the neurons and the mechanism involved in the common illnesses such as sciatica and low back pain. The physiological properties of DRG neurons may help us to better understand the mechanisms of hyperexcitability of the neurons under pathological conditions. The essential behavior of neural functional activity is repetitive firing which plays an important role in information encoding. Many research results showed that Na⁺ , K⁺ and Ca²⁺ channels are involved in the spontaneous and repetitive firing induced by sustained depolarizing currents. As there are many types of calcium channel with diverse properties, studies on the functions of calcium ion and calcium channels in this process have not shown consistent results. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the possible mechanisms involved...