I read this quite old paper, because of a blog post (on reasearch blogging), made me think that this paper showed that the response of olfactory receptor neurons were changing with starvation state of the animal. This is not the case and indeed the blog was not arguing directly that, I misinterpreted the post…
Mousley et al. looked at NPY (one neuropeptide involved in feeding behavior) in their favorite salamender Ambystoma mexicanum. They use an antibody against porcine NPY to localize the neuropeptide in the salamender CNS, use RACE to determine the actual NPY sequence of the axolotls, and use in vivo EOG and in vitro patch clamp on olfactory epithelium neurons (in slides) to asseess the effect of NPY application on the response of olfactory receptor neurons (apparently).
They could find a greater inward current and EOG signal in response to a specific odor, after adding NPY in hungry animals (or slices from hungry animals) but smaller effects (or none) in fed animals. They conclude that starvation may change the expression of NPY receptors (or other part of the NPY pathway) in the olfactory epithelium.
This sounds interesting, and the whole is difficult to critisize, also because difficult to understand/follow: for instance, the anatomy (fig1 and 2) cannot be understood by non-specialists. In general, the logic of certain experiments are difficult to grasp (Fig. 7 for instance)
In addition:
1. they say there is no NPY labelling in the olfactory epithelium.
2. there is no difference in activity between fed and non-fed.
3. the NPY effect goes down after 10 min of application and washing is not making it disappear.
the question : is the NPY effect an artefact? is not taken discussed, although the results are kind of ambiguous.
Mousley, A. (2006). Terminal Nerve-Derived Neuropeptide Y Modulates Physiological Responses in the Olfactory Epithelium of Hungry Axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) Journal of Neuroscience, 26 (29), 7707-7717 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1977-06.2006
Die