Jian-Li He

Sex- and afferent-specific differences in histamine receptor expression in vagal afferents of rats: A potential mechanism for sexual dimorphism in prevalence and severity of asthma.

The incidence of asthma is more common in boys than in girls during the childhood, and more common in premenopausal female than age-matched males. Our previous study demonstrated a gender difference in histamine-mediated neuroexcitability in nodose ganglia neurons (NGNs), highlighting a possibility of histamine-mediated gender difference in asthma via visceral afferent function. In the present study, we aimed to explore the gender difference in expression profiles of histamine receptors (HRs) in nodose ganglia (NG) and individual identified NGNs to provide deeper insights into the mechanisms involved in sexual dimorphism of asthma. Western-blot and SYBR green RT-PCR showed that H2R and H3R were highly expressed in NG of females compared with males and downregulated in ovariectomized females. H1R was equally expressed in NG of both sexes and not altered by ovariectomy. Furthermore, this highly expressive H2R and H3R were distributed in both myelinated and unmyelinated NGNs isolated from adult female rats by immunofluorescence and single-cell RT-PCR. H3R widely distributed in all tested neuron subtypes and its expression did not show significant difference among neuron subtypes. H2R was widely and highly expressed in low-threshold and sex-specific subpopulation of myelinated Ah-types compared with myelinated A- and unmyelinated C-type NGNs. Unexpectedly, weak expression of H1R was detected in both myelinated and unmyelinated NGNs by immunofluorescence, which was further confirmed by single-cell RT-PCR. Our results suggest that the sexual dimorphism in the expression of H2R and H3R in vagal afferents very likely contributes, at least partially, to the gender difference in prevalence and severity of asthma.

Potentiation of 17β-estradiol on neuroexcitability by HCN-mediated neuromodulation of fast-afterhyperpolarization and late-afterdepolarization in low-threshold and sex-specific myelinated Ah-type baroreceptor neurons via GPR30 in female rats

Potentiation of 17β-estradiol on neuroexcitability by HCN-mediated neuromodulation of fast-afterhyperpolarization and late-afterdepolarization in low-threshold and sex-specific myelinated Ah-type baroreceptor neurons via GPR30 in female rats Jian-Li He , Jun-Nan Li , Chun-Mei Zuo , Lu-Qi Wang , Xin Wen , Meng Zuo , Jian Guan , Di Wu , Dong-Xue Song , Xue Yu , Mei-Yu Qu , Yang Liu , Guo-Fen Qiao ⁎, Bai-Yan Li a,⁎

Variations in afferent conduction and axonal morphometrics of aortic depressive nerve imply wider baroreflex function of low-threshold and sex-specific myelinated Ah-type baroreceptor neurons in rats

+channel Gender difference in cardiovascular diseases is one of the most investigated and still unsolved issues. Finding an explanation to this topic might have important implications for the understanding of the differences between men and women in diseases and possibly lead to the development of gender-specific strategies for its management. The autonomic nervous system influences blood pressure and heart rate through adjustments in parasympathetic and sympathetic activity tightly regulated through baroreflex mechanisms, which plays a pivotal role in cardiovascular regulation and buffer-excessive blood pressure swings [1]. Women had a greater baroreceptor reflex sensitivity controlling efferent sympathetic nerve activity [2] and lower tonic autonomic nerve system support of blood pressure contributes to the lower chronic blood pressure levels of premenopausal women [3], suggesting that females may have a broader spectrum of baroreflex functions and that this may partially explain the observed lower incidence of cardiovascular events in premenopausal women compared with men [4]. Our previous study demonstrated low-threshold myelinated Ah-type baroreceptor neurons (BRNs) in adult female rats [5–7], which expresses a large voltage-gated Na + channel including Nav1.9

RETRACTED: Significant variations in afferent conduction and axonal morphology of aortic depressive nerve imply broader spectrum of baroreflex function of myelinated Ah-type baroreceptor neurons in female rats

a Department of Pharmacology, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China b Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Research, Ministry of Education, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China c Department of Immunology, Capital Medical University School of Basic Medical Science, 10 Xitoutiao, Youanmen, Fengtai District, Beijing 10069, China d Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Technology and Engineering, IN University Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, USA D