By Catherine Kolf, Vanessa McMains and Shawna Williams - Johns Hopkins scientists have created stunning images of the branching patterns of individual sensory nerve cells. Their report, published online in the journaleLifeon Dec. 18, details the arrangement of these branches in skin from the backs of mice. The branching patterns define ten distinct groups that, the researchers say, likely correspond to differences in what the nerves do and could hold clues for pain management and other areas of neurological study.
Each type of nerve cell that the team studied was connected at one end to the spinal cord through a thin, wire-like projection called an axon. On the other side of the cell’s “body” was another axon that led to the skin. The axons branched in specific patterns, depending on the cell type, to reach their targets within the skin. “The complexity and precision of these branching patterns is breath-taking,” says Jeremy Nathans, M.D., Ph.D., a Howard Hughes researcher and professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
