Characterizing Muscarinic Receptor Subtype Roles in Inspiratory Burst Modulation of Hypoglossal Motoneurons in Mice
Authors: Vellutato Julius , Kurup Asha , Jeong Kellie , Dudley Sydney , Wealing Jesse , Revill Ann 
Published: May 2024

Loss of tongue muscle (innervated by hypoglossal (XII) motoneurons) tone is responsible for airway obstruction during sleep. Contributing factors include loss of noradrenergic drive and activation of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs). While noradrenergic effects are well studied, less is known about muscarinic effects. In mice, XII motoneurons express four mAChRs; M1, M3, and M5 are excitatory while M2 is inhibitory. We hypothesize that M2 is upregulated with postnatal maturation whereas M1, M3, and M5 are downregulated. We therefore expect that activation of M1, M3, and M5 receptors will potentiate inspiratory bursting early in postnatal development whereas activation of M2 receptors will inhibit inspiratory bursting later in postnatal development. To test this, we utilized rhythmic medullary slice preparations from mice at postnatal days 0-5 (P0-5) and P9-14, which contained preBötzinger Complex (site of inspiratory rhythm generation) and XII motoneurons. Blocking M1 receptors locally with pirenzepine (10 μM & 100 μM) decreased the muscarinic potentiation of inspiratory bursting in P0-5 mice at 100 μM (168±23% at 10 μM and 129±16% at 100 μM in muscarine [p<0.05] vs 183±34% muscarine (100 μM) control response, n=9). Activating M1 receptors locally with cevimeline (1 mM) for 30s or 60s did not mediate potentiation of inspiratory bursting as seen with muscarine (116±7% at 30s and 117±7% at 60s vs 181±40% control muscarine response [n=6, p<0.05]). Bath application of M2 antagonist methoctramine (MTH) in P0-5 mice at 1 μM had no effect on muscarine-potentiation of inspiratory bursting (207±109% at 1 μM MTH in muscarine vs 212±84% muscarine control response, n=9). Preliminary analysis of the P9-14 age group using 1 μM MTH suggests there may be an increase in muscarine-mediated potentiation of inspiratory bursting with M2 blockade (170±56% at 1 μM MTH in muscarine vs 152±56% muscarine control response, n=6, p>0.5). Bath application of M3 receptor antagonist 4-DAMP in P0-5 mice at 10 nM had no effect on muscarine-potentiated inspiratory bursting (172±12% vs 178±30% muscarine control), whereas application at 100 nM decreased muscarine-mediated inspiratory burst potentiation compared to control (133±12%, n=4, p<0.05). However, bath application with another M3 receptor antagonist, J Fumarate 104129, had no significant effect on muscarinic modulation of inspiratory bursting in P0-5 mice (188±46% at 0.6 nM [n=6], 185±32% at 6 nM [n=6], and 144±24% at 60 nM [n=4] vs 176±34% muscarine control [n=6]). Overall, our data partially supports a role of M1 receptors contributing to muscarinic potentiation of inspiratory bursting in XII motoneurons, with the contributions of M2 and M3 appearing insignificant early in postnatal life. Preliminary analysis suggests that M2 has a larger contribution later in maturation. Future research will evaluate the contribution of muscarinic receptor subtypes to inspiratory burst modulation later in postnatal life. NIH/NHLBI Funding: R15HL148870. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.